Can't allow democracy to be hijacked: Supreme Court restores Congress TD Rajegowda as Sringeri MLA (for now)

The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim relief to Congress leader TD Rajegowda, directing that he will remain the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Karnataka's Sringeri constituency for now even though a recent vote recount had resulted in BJP candidate DN Jeevaraj being declared the winner.

A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran also made some strong observations against BJP candidate.

"We cannot let you hijack democracy like this," the Bench remarked.

Thus, it proceeded to pass an interim order directing parties to maintain status quo ante (the state of affairs as it existed before the vote recount).

Effectively, Rajegowda will continue as Sringeri MLA.

The matter concerns the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections. Congress' TD Rajegowda had been declared the winner from the Sringeri constituency, by a narrow margin of 201 votes. 

The result was subsequently challenged by BJP's DN Jeevaraj through an election petition filed before the Karnataka High Court. 

On April 6, the High Court ordered a recount of postal ballot votes, including a re-verification of 279 rejected postal ballots.

On May 3, 2026, the Returning Officer formally declared a revised result, in which Rajegowda's votes were reportedly reduced by 255 and Jeevaraj was declared the winning candidate.

This turn of events was challenged before the Supreme Court by Rajegowda in a plea filed through advocate Tushar Giri.

The Court today ordered that Rajegowda will continue as the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Sringeri for now, and directed for steps to restore this state of affairs.

In the plea before Supreme Court, Rajegowda argued that the High Court had only ordered the re-verification of 279 rejected postal ballots, while the returning officer illegally reconsidered 562 valid postal ballots that were in Rajegowda's favour.

He also challenged the High Court judgment itself, questioning the need for a recount exercise when it had given findings that were favourable to him with respect to corruption allegations levelled by Jeevaraj against him.

After considering the arguments, the top court today ordered that Rajegowda will continue as MLA for now, and also directed that steps be taken to restore him as MLA.

Meanwhile, Jeevaraj is facing a criminal case of tampering with postal ballot papers. The complaint was filed by a Congress election agent Sudhir Kumar Murolli against the BJP leader, Deputy Commissioner KN Ramesh, former Returning Officer Vedamurthy and others.

Jeevaraj has moved the Karnataka High Court to quash this criminal case. The High Court recently stayed the case against Jeevaraj and Vedamurthy.