NDA's VP candidate Dhankhar withdraws from SC's chamber allotment race

NDA candidate for vice presidency Jagdeep Dhankhar has withdrawn himself from the process of seeking a chamber in the Supreme Court premises here as a lawyer, the SCBA said on Tuesday.

In a letter to the registrar concerned of the apex court, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh has said Dhankhar's name be excluded from the process.

"Keeping the interest of the Bar at heart, Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji has conveyed his wish to voluntarily withdraw from the process of chamber allotment so that other lawyers in need of a chamber may be allotted the same," the SCBA president said in the letter.

Singh said the list of the lawyers to be considered for allotment of chambers should be reworked.

Dhankhar, a former Governor of West Bengal, is the National Democratic Alliance's candidate for vice president and is certain to win the election given the overwhelming support the ruling alliance has in the electoral college.

The allotment of chambers at the Supreme Court has become a vexatious issue with several lawyers voicing grievances over the proposed twin-sharing arrangement.

When the matter came up before the Supreme Court on Monday, Justice D Y Chandrachud reminisced how he occupied a small 120 sq ft chamber in Mumbai when he was an Additional Solicitor General.