{"id":18358,"date":"2025-12-10T12:46:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T04:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=18358"},"modified":"2025-12-10T12:46:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T04:46:41","slug":"former-law-society-leaders-call-for-egm-to-protest-election-of-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=18358","title":{"rendered":"Former Law Society leaders call for EGM to protest election of new president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE &#8211; Less than a month after Mr Dinesh Singh Dhillon was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/dinesh-singh-dhillon-is-new-president-of-law-society-of-singapore?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">announced as the new president of the Law Society of Singapore<\/p>\n<p><\/a>, a group of members is now moving to hold a meeting to protest his election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The group is led by Mr Peter Cuthbert Low and Mr Chandra Mohan Nair, both veteran lawyers who served as Law Society presidents.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">They have called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Dec 22 to protest Mr Dhillon\u2019s election as president.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In a letter sent to the Law Society on Dec 9 that was seen by The Straits Times, the members said they are seeking to discuss the impact of his appointment on the independence of the Bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This is because Mr <!-- -->Dhillon <!-- -->&#8211; a non-elected member of the council &#8211; was elected president of the society.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In Singapore, lawyers vote <!-- -->in October <!-- -->every year for members of the Law Society council, the highest body within the society that manages its affairs. <!-- -->The society has about 6,400 members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Under the Legal Profession Act, the Law Minister can appoint up to three members to sit on the council.<!-- --> Mr Dhillon was one of the three brought in this time round. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The council members then vote among themselves to <!-- -->choose<!-- --> a president, two vice\u2011presidents and a treasurer.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This was done and the Law Society announced on Nov 17 that Mr Dinesh will lead the new 21-member council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The proposed resolution stated in the letter<!-- --> <!-- -->was to record the view that \u201cas a matter of past practice and existing convention, good governance and to uphold confidence in the independence of the Bar\u201d, <!-- -->only someone who has been elected by the members of the society should be elected as president<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The letter made it clear, though, that the resolution \u201cdoes not alter or invalidate any office-bearer election\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The motion was proposed by Mr Low and seconded by Mr Nair.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lawyers who spoke to ST on the condition of anonymity said disquiet began brewing soon after Mr Dinesh was elected president by the council.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A document then began circulating among lawyers to collect signatures to requisition for an EGM to be held. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Any 25 members of the society can request for such a meeting to be held.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">They made the request to the Law Society on Nov 24, but when the EGM was not called by Dec 8, the <!-- -->members who sought the meeting notified the society <!-- -->that they will hold an EGM on Dec 22.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Meanwhile, the Law Society council had organised a tea session for members, which is being held on Dec 10, to <!-- -->\u201caddress any queries or concerns of members on any issue, in particular the transition of Council-elect 2026 into office\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mr Low declined to comment. <\/p>\n<p>ST has also contacted Mr Dinesh and the Law Society for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/former-law-society-leaders-call-for-egm-to-protest-election-of-new-president\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE &#8211; Less than a month after Mr Dinesh Singh Dhillon was announced as the new president of the Law Society of Singapore , a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}