Supreme Court allows declaration of results of Delhi Bar Council polls results subject to election tribunal decisions

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the results of the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) elections to be declared, subject to the outcome of the grievances pending before election tribunals.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said that election disputes should be raised before the tribunals already constituted to adjudicate such matters.

The Court also requested the tribunals to decide the disputes expeditiously, preferably within 3 months.

The Bench noted that several petitions concerning irregularities in different state bar council elections had been brought before the Supreme Court. Since the Court had already constituted election tribunals headed by former judges to deal with such disputes, it said that there was no reason to adopt a different approach in the case of the BCD elections.

It accordingly disposed of the petitions, granting aggrieved parties liberty to approach the election tribunals. The Bench made it clear that the results of the BCD elections could be declared, but would remain subject to the outcome of the pending disputes.

It also directed the BCD to preserve the entire election record. The Delhi Police was directed to preserve the original CCTV footage relating to the election process and provide copies to the concerned parties, so that the material remains available for consideration by the tribunals.

The Supreme Court had earlier permitted counting of the votes polled in the BCD elections to continue, while directing that the results could not be declared without its permission.

The elections had been followed by allegations of irregularities in the counting process. During the proceedings, counsel appearing before the Supreme Court raised allegations of tampering with ballot papers and excess votes.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh submitted that the BCD had a 5-year term which had continued for 8 years and urged that the election results be declared. He also referred to allegations that thousands of votes had been tampered with.

The Bench, however, said that such issues could be raised before the election tribunal. When counsel referred to alleged excess votes, the Court reiterated that it could not be approached in its original jurisdiction for adjudication of such election disputes.

The Court had earlier asked a special bench of the Delhi High Court to examine petitions concerning alleged irregularities in the BCD elections. The High Court subsequently held that although the petitions raising allegations of irregularities were maintainable, the circumstances did not warrant ordering a fresh election.

It allowed the counting process to continue from the stage where it had been halted, after finding that the alleged manipulation of ballot papers did not affect the first-preference votes. The High Court also directed safeguards to ensure transparency during the remaining counting process.

Following the High Court’s decision, the matter returned to the Supreme Court, which had allowed counting to continue but withheld permission for declaration of the results.

Separately, in view of the wider disputes surrounding elections to state bar councils, the Supreme Court had constituted election tribunals headed by former judges. Two additional tribunals headed by former Supreme Court Justices Deepak Gupta and Hima Kohli were constituted in addition to an existing tribunal headed by former Supreme Court Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.

The tribunal headed by Justice Gupta comprises former Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Senior Advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, while the tribunal headed by Justice Kohli comprises former Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Senior Advocate Kaveeta Wadia.

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