Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Physical Voting In SCBA Elections Through Secret Ballot

During the hearing a division Bench of Justice RF Nariman and Justice BR Gavai questioned the petitioner Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav how the present case was maintainable under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution.

In response, Advocate Pradeep Yadav cited Supreme Court's Constitution judgement from 1995. The Bench then asked the Counsel for the citation of the case being cited by him. The Counsel stated he has printed it from the Supreme Court's website.

You want us to refer a case from the Supreme Court's website? Justice Nariman remarked.

The Bench observed that SCBA is an organisation governed by bye-laws, and being a voter, the petitioner had no fundamental right involved. The Court also pointed out Clause 17 of the Bye-laws to the petitioner and stated that the Petitioner should approach the election committee.

"I have already approached the Election Committee " - Advocate Pradeep Yadav said.

" Withdraw it or we will dismiss it" the Bench said.

The Bench therefore gave liberty to the petitioner to withdraw his plea seeking physical voting through secret ballot in the SCBA elections.

The present plea was filed before the Supreme Court urging the Court to issue directions to the Joint Secretary Cooperative and Central Registrar, Chairman of the Election Committee and Supreme Court Bar Association through its Secretary, asking them to conduct the elections in terms of Bye-Law no. 17 of SCBA.

The petition stated that the dates of the upcoming Election for the year 2020-2021 has been announced by the SCBA and is scheduled to be conducted on 27th Feb 2021 and as per the information received from SCBA's official website, the elections will be conducted by virtual mode or hybrid system, where a system will be provided to caste vote electronically and there will be no physical voting will be conducted through secret ballot.

The plea cited Bye-Law no. 17 of the Registered Bye-Laws of the Supreme Court Bar Association which states that the Office-Bearers of the Association are to be elected by secret ballot and the other members of the Committees are to be elected by secret ballot by single distributive votes at the Annual Election. The bye law state that no office bearer or member of the Committee will be eligible to hold any office for more than two consecutive years. Therefore if the Registered Bye-Laws of SCBA require the elections to be conducted by the secret ballot it has to be done in that manner only.

The petitioner also argued that the members of the SCBA are not ready to adapt the Virtual or Hybrid method of elections as most of the Advocates have gone back to their respective native places and there is a remote possibility to access to the internet. Therefore, the virtual mode of elections is not practical as if the members do not vote their valuable right will be vanished.