The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions alleging irregularities in the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) elections, bringing to a close three days of extensive hearings that even stretched through the weekend.
A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Tejas Karia heard arguments over Friday, Saturday and Sunday before reserving its order in a case that has put the spotlight on the conduct of one of Delhi’s most closely watched legal body elections.
The Bench heard submissions from Rajiv Khosla, Shobha Gupta, Raman Gandhi, Anushka Arora, Dr Lalit Bhasin, Vaibhav Jain, Nina Gupta and Rudra Vikram Singh appearing for the petitioners, while advocates T Singhdev, Priya Hingorani, Sunil Mittal and Peyoosh Kalra represented the respondents.
During the hearing, the court also examined video recordings of the vote-counting process amid allegations of procedural lapses and manipulation during counting.
Speaking to The Tribune, petitioners lawyer Rudra Vikram Singh alleged that concerns regarding the election process were repeatedly flagged but ignored.
“From the inception of BCD election there have been several irregularities which were highlighted by me and other candidates, but every time they were rejected by the Returning Officer. During the election too, 79 candidates were suspended for MCC violations, however, without following due process, those suspensions were revoked though as per law their candidature had to be rejected,” he said.
Singh said that during counting too, many ballots were allegedly manipulated and one FIR was lodged against a counting officer, but counting continued. “After Supreme Court intervention, counting was halted and today the Delhi High Court reserved orders,” Singh said.
The dispute had reached the Delhi High Court after the Supreme Court, on May 18, transferred a batch of petitions challenging the election process to a special bench. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had directed the High Court to examine the matter amid mounting allegations surrounding the polls.
The top court had also stayed the counting process after concerns were raised that even allegedly tampered ballot papers were being counted. Counting will remain halted until the High Court delivers its verdict.
The Bar Council of Delhi elections, held in February this year, were conducted under the supervision of retired Delhi High Court judge Justice Talwant Singh, who acted as the returning officer.
The elections, however, witnessed repeated controversies during both campaigning and counting.
On February 22, 67 candidates, including two Senior Advocates, were placed under summary suspension over alleged large-scale violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and Election Rules, 2023. Suspension notices had been issued to seventy-nine lawyers, but sixty-three of them were revoked the following day after explanations were submitted.
Days later, the Bar Council of India placed a lawyer under interim suspension for allegedly misbehaving with Justice Talwant Singh. The lawyer was accused of attempting to manhandle the retired judge, instigating lawyers and raising slogans against election officials during an inspection over MCC violation complaints.
The controversy deepened further when the BCD suspended former Delhi High Court Bar Association President Rajiv Khosla and nine other advocates from its rolls for allegedly manhandling, pushing and abusing election officials.
On May 2, Justice Talwant Singh also sent a confidential communication to the Supreme Court regarding the election process, while multiple petitions challenging various aspects of the polls continued to be filed.
