New Delhi, Sep 3 The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to consider pleas filed by six candidates challenging the results of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Executive Committee Members' elections.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked the petitioners to approach the Election Committee headed by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta.
The matter was mentioned before the bench seeking urgent hearing.
"We cannot adjudicate an election dispute in a mentioning. You may approach the appropriate authority," the bench said.
The counsel appearing for the candidates told the court that they have already approached the authority.
He said if an order is passed by the top court, it will carry appropriate weight.
"We are maintaining discipline. We are not protesting outside the SCBA office or before this court. We are only placing our grievance," the lawyer said.
The apex court, however, said all the applications may be placed before the election authority for consideration.
Six candidates who contested the SCBA elections on August 18 for the post of executive member have approached the top court challenging the election results and sought recounting of the ballot papers, alleging irregularities and manipulation during the counting process.
The application seeks quashing of the result for the post and a fresh counting of the ballots under the supervision of the SCBA Election Committee.
The applicants -- Smriti Kumari, Shweta Sinha, Shehla Chaudhary, Sundari, Sachin Pahwa and Krishna Kumar Gupta -- alleged that the counting process was not conducted fairly and certain candidates received an advantage due to the manner in which the votes were tallied.
Senior advocate Pradeep Rai was elected the SCBA president.
Rai secured 822 votes in the presidential election. The other candidates were Anupam Lal Das, who polled 451 votes, Adish Agarwalla (412), Gaurav Bhatia (370), Sukumar Pattjoshi (269), Siddharth Mridul (217) and Mahalakshmi Pavani (128).
Senior advocate Rahul Kaushik was elected vice president of the SCBA and advocate Pragya Baghel was elected secretary.
Advocate Amarendra Kumar Singh was elected treasurer and advocate Meneesh Dubey was elected joint secretary.
