SCBA Elections To Be Conducted Physically Through Secret Ballot: Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Directions To Election Committee

The petition filed by Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav has urged 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 has 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 has further stated that based on the information received, services of agency will be hired to conduct the election virtually and the agency will manage all the affairs pertaining to the elections. This will involve a lot of money to be shelled out from the pockets of innocent members and earning of huge profit for agency who is conducting the elections. The petitioner has argued that whether the mechanism used by the agency will be able identify the real voter and ensure that no proxy voting will be done, and that there will be no mismanagement is a debatable issue.

The plea has 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 states 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.

"If the statute provides for a thing to be done in particular manner, then it has to be done in that manner and in no other manner", if as per the Registered Bye-Laws of the Supreme Court Bar Association, if the elections has to be conducted by the secret ballot it has to be done in that manner only. " the plea reads.

The petitioner has 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.