The Supreme Court was on Monday informed that there will be recounting of votes in the recently concluded Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections for the post of President and other Executive Committee members.The counsel for the Election Committee (EC), which oversaw and conducted the polls, told a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta that since allegations have been raised that the votes exceeded the number of ballots, there shall be recounting for all posts including the post of President.The counsel also proposed that the Supreme Court Registrar General be made an observer to the recounting process."Votes exceeded ballot issues. We are proposing to recount today. We propose the Registrar General to be an observer," the counsel told the Bench.The Bench acceded to the proposal for recounting."Let no candidate should have any doubt. Let there be recounting for all elections wherever this is a complaint," the Bench remarked. The Court also said that the results after recounting should not be declared. Instead a report should be submitted to the Court. The Court was hearing a plea after some election candidates alleged instances of bogus voting and other irregularities.The SCBA polls were held on May 20. Senior Advocate Vikas Singh won the post of President, defeating nearest rivals Senior Advocates Adish C Aggarwala and Pradeep Kumar Rai.Senior Advocate Rahul Kaushik was elected the Vice President while advocate Pragya Baghel was elected Secretary.During the hearing of the matter on May 23, a lawyer had pointed out that the Supreme Court had previously directed 33 per cent reservation for women in the SCBA elections.She contended that the Election Committee erred by declaring results purely on the basis of merit, without reserving two senior executive member posts exclusively for women, regardless of how many female candidates won on their own.The Court had on that day ordered the EC to preserve CCTV footage of the elections till further orders.When the matter was heard today, the counsel for EC raised some issues."The complaint is regarding executive members. Recounting has been completed earlier also," the counsel for EC said."You declare the results as provisional subject to outcome of recounting," the Court said.The counsel then said that the EC was facing issues when counting votes."We have to take 2 women members. Main grievance is by Mr. Varun Mudgal. After every 5-10 ballots there is a problem. We are not able to count," the Court said."Please be cool. Don’t create this kind of scene. We are not in the same composition. We cannot hear on judicial side. There are some genuine grievances we will hear them. Whatever post you have got complaints for now please go ahead with recounting," the Bench assured..However, the Bench said not to declare the results after recounting and instead wait for Court's directions."Go for recounting of executive members. Then don’t declare the results immediately. First we will see if it has been done fairly. We will first see the report (on recounting) before the results are declared. Then we will take a call," the Bench remarked.The counsel for EC said that recounting for post of president can be done immediately but the recounting of votes for other EC posts might take a few days. "For president (post), we will do it immediately. But for executive committee (members), it will take 2-3 days," he said."Let it take 4 days. No problem. Our official will be there someone from the registrar’s office. If any one of you is in personal difficulty for recounting of executive post, we will substitute them. We can’t reconstitute the committee," the Bench said..When Senior Counsel Adish Aggarwala tried to intervene, the Court said that all grievances can be raised before the EC."We are not entertaining this now. We have told you all grievances be given in writing, it will be placed before committee. Then committee report will be placed before us. Then we will consider," the Bench made it clear..[Read live coverage]
