Delhi High Court refuses to order re-polling for BCD elections

The Delhi High Court on Saturday refused to order repolling for the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) elections.

A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Tejas Karia said that while the petitions alleging irregularities in the BCD elections and seeking repolling were maintainable, the Court is not ordering repolling.

It ruled that the entire BCD election does not warrant a fresh poll merely because certain manipulated ballot papers were identified during counting.

“The proper consequence of such manipulation is that any ballot paper bearing erasures, overwriting, corrections, additions, or other suspicious variations shall be segregated and kept in sealed bundles or packets marked as “doubtful ballots”. Such doubtful ballots shall be placed before the learned Additional Solicitor General, who shall determine the manner in which they are to be counted and record brief reasons in respect of each such ballot. Upon reasons being so recorded, the decision of the learned Additional Solicitor General shall be final, and preferences shall be allocated accordingly. The doubtful ballots and the reasons so recorded shall be preserved separately,” the Bench said. 

It added that no recounting of the first-preference ballot is required, as the alleged manipulation did not affect it. Therefore, the Court allowed the counting process to continue from where it was halted.

To ensure transparency, the court ordered enhanced safeguards, including lockable storage for ballots, high-resolution cameras, continuous CCTV monitoring, live-streaming, and stricter verification of counting staff.

Twenty-seven allegedly manipulated ballots and other doubtful ballots will be separately examined by the Additional Solicitor General, whose decision will be final. The court also mandated strict access controls and preservation of records, while reserving petitioners’ right to challenge the results through election petitions.

The Court passed the order while hearing a batch of petitions alleging irregularities in the conduct of the BCD elections. The Bench had reserved its verdict on June 1, after hearing the arguments in the case over three days, including Saturday and Sunday.

The Court heard advocates Rajiv Khosla, Shobha Gupta, Raman Gandhi, Anushka Arora, Dr Lalit Bhasin, Vaibhav Jain, Nina Gupta and Rudra Vikram Singh on behalf of the petitioners and advocates T Singhdev, Priya Hingorani, Sunil Mittal and Peyoosh Kalra for the respondents.

It also examined the video recording of the vote-counting process.

Notably, the matters were entrusted to the special bench of the High Court following an order of the Supreme Court on May 18. A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi transferred a batch of petitions alleging irregularities in the poll process to a special bench of the Delhi High Court.

After concerns were raised that even tampered ballot papers were being counted, the top court had proceeded to stay the counting of ballot papers until the High Court gives its verdict in the matter.

The Bar Council of Delhi elections were held in February this year, with retired Delhi High Court judge Justice Talwant Singh overseeing the polls as the returning officer.

However, the polls were marked by some controversy. Sixty-seven candidates, including two Senior Advocates, were placed under summary suspension on February 22 for large-scale violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the Election Rules, 2023.

Seventy-nine lawyers received suspension notices. However, on February 23, sixty-three such suspension notices were revoked after the affected candidates gave explanations.

Days later, the Bar Council of India placed a lawyer under interim suspension for misbehaving with Justice Talwant Singh. The suspended lawyer was alleged to have attempted to manhandle Justice Singh, instigated a crowd of lawyers and raised slogans against election machinery while the retired judge was inspecting an area on complaints of MCC violations.

Later, the BCD suspended former Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) President Rajiv Khosla and 9 other advocates from its rolls for allegedly “manhandling, pushing and abusing” the officials tasked with conducting the BCD elections. 

On May 2, Justice Singh sent a confidential letter to the Supreme Court regarding the Bar elections. Meanwhile, various petitions were also filed on alleged irregularities in the polls.

[Read Judgement]