Tanisha Rana
Published on: September 11, 2022 at 21:30 IST
After notifying the Delhi High Court that it has decided to suspend its decision to postpone the elections, the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) election committee would proceed with the scheduled elections.
The electoral commission announced that the decision will be put on hold for a week.
The nomination procedure will, however, begin on Tuesday rather than Monday as originally planned since the nomination forms have not yet been produced.
Before single-judge, Justice Sanjeev Narula, the DHCBA election commission submitted the proposal.
Two petitions contesting the commission’s decision to postpone the bar association elections indefinitely due to the lack of EVMs were being heard by the court, one by the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) and the other by attorney Sukrit Gupta.
Justice Narula requested the commission to consider with its members on whether it would be good to postpone the polls when the issue was brought up Sunday morning wherein he was made aware of the dispute.
The DHCBA election committee informed the High Court that it had chosen to postpone its orders for the post-lunch session.
It further stated that talks to purchase Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the conduct of elections are ongoing with the University of Delhi (DU) and the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The DHCBA election commission’s legal representative also stated that other options, such as conducting elections using paper ballots, will be studied before deciding to suspend its directives and search for EVM devices.
Elections for the DHCBA were permanently postponed when Delhi University (DU), which was supposed to supply the electronic voting machines, demanded payment of Rs. 1.1 crore.
The DU requested the money, claiming that the Patiala House Court had ordered the preservation of the voting devices it had given for the 2019 elections due to claims of electoral fraud.
But according to DHCBA, the University’s arbitrary allegations cannot be permitted to invalidate the election because the court has ordered that the EVMs be retained.