Photo Courtesy: nenews
Shillong: Women advocates from the High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association and the Shillong Bar Association are demanding the firing of Advocate General Amit Kumar. They delivered a formal memorandum to Tourism Minister Timothy D. Shira on Tuesday. They also met with Governor C.H. Vijayashankar at Lok Bhavan this past Saturday to press their case.
The legal groups want an independent probe into how the state picks panel advocates. They claim the process is rigged. The memorandum alleges that many state appointments go to lawyers with close ties to Kumar or his private office. They also questioned why the state keeps hiring an Advocate General from outside Meghalaya when plenty of qualified local talent exists.
The associations are furious over recent comments made by the AG. They condemned what they called a generalized sweeping statement regarding the safety of women in the local legal community. The lawyers labeled these claims false and an insult to the Bar. They have officially struck Kumar from their membership rolls. They refuse to recognize him as the state's top lawyer.
The group sent a letter to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma. They gave him exactly one week to act. Copies of the resolution reached the President of India, the Prime Minister's Office, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Meghalaya, and the leaders of both the Bar Council of India and the Bar Council of Delhi.
Updated at 12th September 2026 at 2:00am
The campaign against Kumar has spilled over into the state legislature. On Friday, women lawyers handed off copies of their resolutions and supporting documents to several MLAs, urging them to intervene in the standoff. The materials provided include the official record of an August 5 extraordinary general meeting, where 406 members voted by a show of hands to cut ties with the AG.
This push follows a specific court clash regarding the alleged assault of a woman intern and the public parading of an accused lawyer. Kumar maintains that his position as AG is held at the pleasure of the government and asserts that the Bar lacks the authority to remove him. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association has weighed in, publicly urging the Meghalaya associations to drop their resolution against him.
Comments