Supreme Court of India
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Conduct recounting of votes in the recently concluded Supreme Court Bar Association polls, the apex court told the election committee on Monday in view of alleged irregularities in the process.
A vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta told senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, a member of the poll committee, that recounting of votes for the post of President of the bar body should be conducted first followed by the counting of votes for the executive members.
Hansaria said the election committee has decided to conduct a recounting of votes after there were complaints regarding votes counted exceeding the number of votes polled.
He said the election committee had received a complaint from senior advocate Adish Aggarwala, who has contested for the post of President that the total number of votes declared valid for the post of president was 2,651 which exceeded the total ballots issued, that is 2,588.
"The recounting of votes for the post of president will start first as it will take a shorter period of time which will be followed by votes for executive members, which will take two-three days," Hansaria informed the bench.
Justice Surya Kant said this matter is sub-judice before a special bench comprising him and Justice KV Viswanathan and therefore he is only asking the election committee to recount the votes on the administrative side without passing any judicial orders.
Hansaria informed the bench that Aggarwala had issued notice to the members of the election committee and threatened to initiate criminal action against them.
Justice Surya Kant said any attempt to browbeat the members of the election committee for SCBA polls would not be tolerated and the court knows how to deal with such people.
He assured Hansaria that nothing would happen and asked him to ensure free and fair recounting of votes to assuage the grievances of bar members.
"We are not going to replace the election committee and if any member is indisposed we can substitute a member but the court is not going to replace the committee," the bench clarified after several members levelled various allegations.
The top court also asked Hansaria to submit a report on the results of the recounting of votes without declaring the results and told him to approach the bench, if any problem arises.
"Don't declare the results after the recounting of votes. We'd like to see if the process was fair," Justice Kant said.
In the 2025 bar body elections senior advocate Vikas Singh was elected as President while the names of nine executive members were declared as elected.