NDA's VP pick Jagdeep Dhankar withdraws from Supreme Court's chamber allotment race

Days after the name of NDA Vice-President candidate and former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar emerged on the Supreme Court lawyers' chamber allotment, he voluntarily withdrew and requested that his chamber be offered to other lawyers in need.

Dhankhar was assigned a chamber in the new Lawyers' Chambers in D Block of the Supreme Court's Additional Building Complex on a twin-sharing basis almost five years after he first applied for it. He was one of the 468 lawyers who had been assigned new chambers.

The President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Vikas Singh, wrote to the registrar of the top court on Tuesday and stated, "Dhankhar ji has conveyed his request to voluntarily withdraw from the process of chamber allotment so that other lawyers in need of a chamber may be awarded the same."

With a massive list of lawyers standing in line for years, obtaining a chamber in the Supreme Court is a matter of prestige, credibility, and, most crucially, luck. Every year, thousands of advocates become eligible for a chamber, but only a few hundred are assigned one.

Vikas Singh, senior counsel and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told India today, "This gesture by Dhankhar is commendable at this juncture when he does not occupy any constitutional post." So far, he is neither governor nor vice president. This gesture establishes great expectations for a person.

Singh said, "Dhankhar could have kept the chamber for his personal use, but his voluntarily gave it up."