TN Bar Council Elections: Madras HC directs district-wise counting of votes

With a view to ensuring that lawyers are able to exercise their vote freely, Bar-wise votes cast in the Tamil Nadu Bar Council elections will be mixed before they are counted..The Madras High Court Bench of Justices CT Selvam and N Sathishkumar passed an order to this effect in a petition filed by Advocate Selvi George..Being a candidate herself in the upcoming elections, the petitioner had come across advocates who were reluctant to vote for candidates from other Bars in the state. As the votes were counted booth-wise/bar-wise, it was easy to identify whether advocates had voted for the candidate from their respective Bars..The general practice is to bring ballot sheets to Chennai, where they are segregated Bar-wise before they are counted. This in effect affected an advocate’s ability to cast votes freely. In her petition, Selvi pointed out that voters were afraid that they would be “put to task if they vote for any outsiders.”.In this background, it was contended,.“…that though there is no such procedure specified in the rule for counting Bar wise, the procedure adopted by the Bar Council for so long is this (counting bar wise) and because of this there were past instances of malpractices and unnecessary confusions..If the counting is by bar wise then it is very easy for the candidates to know as to how many votes he/she has got from a particular Bar. In such an event there is absolutely no charm in calling it as a secret ballet.” (sic).Appreciating the concerns raised, the Court has ordered district-wise vote-counting to be followed, after the booth-wise ballot sheets are mixed. This order was passed on submissions made to this effect by Senior Advocate R Singaravelan, appearing for the Tamil Nadu Bar Council. The order states,.“Counting of votes will be conducted only District wise and not booth wise. This in effect sufficiently addresses the plea of the petitioner of avoidance of identification of the voting pattern in particular booths. We would make it clear that in effecting the exercise, Ballots obtained from various booths, will be mixed and then counted..Of course, in the event of the Returning Officer considering it necessary and for any reason whatsoever, not to take into account the Ballots in particular booth/booths, the same will be kept apart and not mixed with other ballots.”.The Court has also directed that the vote-counting process be supervised. Moreover, officer bearers and association representatives are barred from any involvement in the exercise. The order states,.“Counting of votes is to be supervised by Members of the Subordinate Judiciary and the President and/or Secretary of the respective Associations or any other Office bearers of the Associations will not be permitted or in any manner involved in the exercise.”