The Delhi High Court has issued notice on a plea challenging the decision of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) to conduct its 2026 Council elections through electronic voting.

Justice Amit Bansal issued notice on the petition filed by one Subhash Bharti, seeking quashing of the decisions taken by the ICSI Council on May 22, 23 and June 10, approving electronic voting for the upcoming elections.

Bharti seeks a direction that the elections instead be conducted through the existing physical mode of voting, in accordance with the Company Secretaries Act, 1980 and the Company Secretaries (Election to the Council) Rules, 2006.

In the alternative, the plea seeks directions that electronic voting should not be implemented unless adequate statutory, technical and procedural safeguards are established.

As per the plea, such safeguards include a voter-verifiable and independently auditable trail, cybersecurity certification, a genuine pilot exercise with its results disclosed to the membership, and safeguards concerning internet connectivity, hardware, software and OTP delivery to ensure that members are not deprived of their voting rights.

Further, the plea seeks removal of the existing Returning Officer and other ICSI Secretariat officials from involvement in the conduct, supervision, administration, data management, counting, audit, declaration of results and preservation of records relating to the 2026 elections.

It also seeks appointment of an independent Returning Officer or Administrator.

Bharti has additionally sought independent oversight of the electoral process, production of records concerning the decision to introduce electronic voting, and an independent forensic and data audit concerning access to and sharing of the ICSI member database.

The Court has sought response of the Union Government and ICSI, and directed that the responses be filed within four weeks.

The matter will now be heard on October 27.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. J. Sai Deepak, Senior Advocate

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Rajiv Pandey (GP), Advocate for R-1; Ms. Pinky Anand, Senior Advocate with Mr. Bhaskar Bhardwaj, Mr. Gaurav Tandon, Ms. Gauri Goburdhan, Ms. Saudamini Sharma and Ms. Adeti Salooja, Advocates; Mr. Pranav Prateek, Advocate for R- 13

Title: SUBHASH BHARTI v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS

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