INTRODUCTION
The Supreme Court today said that if it is convinced that the claims made in a plea claiming irregularities in the recently ended Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections are true, the elections will be void. Senior Advocate Dr. Adish Aggarwala brought up the issue before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh.
The arguments in the plea will be examined in this article, along with their assessed merits.
Additionally, it will compile and analyze a portion of the pleadings’ history.
BRIEF HISTORY
In the SCBA v. BD Kaushik case, where a bench of Justices Kant and KV Viswanathan is deliberating matters related to changes in the Supreme Court Bar Association, the former president of the SCBA submitted an application, which led to the mention.
DURING THE JUDGEMENT
Justice Surya Kant stated, “If we are satisfied, we will set aside the election,” and urged Aggarwala to hold off until he and Justice Viswanathan were appointed to the Special Bench.
“Ask J Viswanathan when he’s sitting on the special bench, and I’ll list him that week.”
Today’s listing is out of the question. Justice Kant declared, “Heavens won’t fall.” A panel of Justices Kant and Viswanathan declared yesterday that any member of the bar with a complaint about anomalies in the SCBA elections may submit it to the court with the appropriate documentation. It stated that the Court would investigate any claim of egregious illegality, including voter impersonation, if supported by proof, while also directing the retention of the pertinent CCTV footage.
Aggarwala, who ran for president in the most recent SCBA elections, claims in his application that there were 2588 voting slips distributed and that all candidates, including those with illegal votes, earned a total of 2651 votes. “This clearly indicates that 200 excess votes were found in the ballot boxes as compared to the 2588 slips issued to voters” , the complaint claims. It is alleged that several of the candidates engaged in “fraudulent acts” in addition to election-related inconsistencies.
He points out that Senior Advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, one of the Election Commissioners, publicly campaigned for and backed President-elect Senior Advocate Vikas Singh.”She openly states many times to voters that ‘this is fourth and last term of Mr. Vikas Singh so vote for him next time I will contest for the post of President and Mr. Vikas Singh will Support me’…”, the plea states. Despite being aware that many ballots were still uncounted, the Election Committee reportedly colluded with President-elect Vikas Singh and former President Kapil Sibal to declare the results, according to the senior lawyer.
Aggarwala further claims that Vikas Singh broke the model code of conduct by sending out letters to voters asking for their votes on the evenings of May 19 and May 20, 2025. He claims that despite the Election Committee receiving a complaint from a SCBA member, nothing was done about it. Among other things, the application requests that the election results for the presidency be quashed, that a commission constituted by the court conduct a judicial investigation into the elections, and that the election materials be preserved.
ANOTHER APPLICATION FILED
Two further SCBA members have filed an application arguing that the Election Committee, which was established by the Court, did not conduct the elections in accordance with the rules. The applicants argue that the voters’ list was still published after the nomination date and that the new voters’ list was not created using 60 proximity card entries in 2024. They claim that “the previous year voters list which had included 500 new voters on the basis of 30 proximity card entries in the year 2023 remained included without verifying their 60 proximity card entries in the year 2024.”
The applicants further allege that fraudulent votes were cast and that SCBA did not prevent individuals who were not even advocates from participating in elections. The appeal further states that no one was permitted to confirm the voters in the SCBA elections. “the election committee deliberately did not publish a voter list with photographs making it unable for the officers of the election committee to match the voters with the voters list”. The applicants want to, among other things, have the elections revoked, hold new elections, and form a committee to examine the election process that includes the Registrar of the Court and an impartial third party.
CONCLUSION
Vikas Singh, who was elected as the SCBA President for the fourth time, received 1,047 votes in the elections, whereas Aggarwala, who served as President during the 2023–2024 term, received 683 votes. Aggarwala said in the application that Senior Advocate Mahalakshmi Pavani, the election commissioner, supported Singh during his campaign. Additionally, he claimed that the total number of votes cast exceeded both the total number of ballots and slips that the election officials had distributed. He said that the electoral process was tainted by fraud and a number of inconsistencies. Additionally, he said that Vikas Singh sent emails after the allotted campaigning period.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SAHIL YADAV, a law student at NLIU Bhopal, is a dedicated and passionate legal writer, who is keen to explore International law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Forensic Psychology and publish research papers and articles on contemporary legal nuances and issues. He is also interested in the intersection of disciplines like history, psychology, political science, philosophy, and sociology with law.