The Supreme Court on Thursday considered setting up an independent election tribunal to adjudicate disputes arising from Bar Council elections across the country, while hearing a challenge relating to the implementation of 30% reservation for women candidates in the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council elections.

The petitioners alleged that despite the Court’s earlier directions that elections be conducted in a “just, transparent and fair” manner, the process adopted for implementing women’s reservation and counting votes under the single transferable vote system suffered from serious flaws. The challenge was confined to the reservation mechanism for women candidates introduced pursuant to earlier Supreme Court directions providing 20% elected representation and 10% co-option for women in State Bar Councils.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the Court had consciously adopted a model of “accommodation” rather than strict reservation. The Court remarked:

“And we have endorsed that it is a common ballot in respect and that is why we consciously not use the word reservation but accommodation. The number of seats remain the same.”

The petitioner argued that the common ballot system disadvantaged women candidates because voters tended to give first preference votes to male candidates and second preference votes to female candidates, resulting in alleged distortion of representation. Counsel further submitted that thousands of votes allegedly went uncounted due to the manner in which the Hare-Clark proportional representation system was applied.

Refusing to enter into merits at this stage, the Court noted the role already played by the High-Powered Election Supervisory Committee comprising former judges. The bench, however, acknowledged that a structured appellate mechanism may be necessary to deal with election disputes nationally. The Court proposed constituting a five-member tribunal comprising a former Supreme Court judge, former Chief Justices and eminent senior advocates to examine Bar Council election disputes.

The Court indicated that it would discuss the composition and framework of the proposed tribunal mechanism further on Monday.