SCBA elections should be held physically by secret ballot: Plea in Supreme Court

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the decision to employ online voting for the upcoming Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections. .The petition has been filed by advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav who is one of the candidates running for the post of SCBA treasurer. .The plea states that online voting/ virtual mode is "impractical and a huge sum of money of the innocent members of SCBA is going to be misused for hiring services of an agency (to conduct the elections).".Supreme Court Bar Association decides to hold elections on February 27 in a hybrid manner.Instead, the election should be conducted through physical mode by secret ballot, Yadav has contended.."What is the mechanism used by the agency to identify the real voter or no proxy voting will be done, how it will be done and how it can make sure that there will be no mismanagement is a debatable. It is requested before this Hon’ble court to direct the respondent /s to conduct the election strictly as pre the Bye-Law No. 17 of the Supreme Court Bar Association," the petition states. .SCBA elections are scheduled to be held on February 27. The elections could be held through online mode or hybrid mode of physical and online voting. .This is pursuant to the suggestion from a health advisory team from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi which batted for elections to be held through online mode in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.The team from AIIMS had visited the Supreme Court premises after a request to that effect was made by the Additional Registrar of the Supreme Court."In view of the probability of spread of Covid in large congregation and feasibility of elections to be conducted on secure online platform, it is desirable that the elections are done on online platform only," the AIIMS team suggested..Yadav has submitted that lawyers have gone back to their respective native places and there is remote possibility for them to access internet and "virtual mode of elections is not practical and if they don’t vote their valuable right will be vanished.".Yadav has further submitted that he is not satisfied with the election procedure adopted by the SCBA Election Committee and has demanded that the election be "held as per the Bye-Law no. 17 of the Supreme Court Bar Association which declares the election strictly though secret ballot only."