The Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 14) rebuked the Election Commission of India for not maintaining the records of the vote counting in Karnataka's Sringeri Assembly Constituency in an appeal filed by Congress member TD Rajegowda.

Rajegowda had approached the Supreme Court after he was unseated as the MLA pursuant to the Karnataka High Court's direction to recount votes, which resulted in BJP's DN Jeevaraja being sworn in as the MLA from the constituency.

Earlier, the Supreme Court directed restoration of status quo ante (state of affairs before the recount), observing that the Returning Officer's exercise of reverifying already validated postal ballots was prima facie invalid. Subsequently, it asked for the original records. The ECI had produced in sealed cover the videography of the recounting that happened in 2026 but didn't produce the video footage of the original counting of postal votes.

Consequently, an interlocutory application was filed by Rajegowda seeking the video recording of the original election counting.

The bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva on Wednesday sought the video recordings. However, the ECI's counsel informed that they don't have the video footage of the original counting that happened in 2023. It was stated that they are unable to trace it because the officers responsible for it then were transferred.

This attracted sharp criticism from the bench, which stated that the ECI can't act so irresponsibly. It has now directed the ECI to produce the records. The bench said that such conduct doesn't inspire confidence and that the Court will not permit the ECI to act like this.

Background

In the appeal before the Supreme Court, Rajegowda argued that, though the High Court had only ordered the re-verification of 279 rejected postal ballots, the Returning Officer also recounted 562 valid postal ballots that were in Rajegowda's favour.

When the matter was heard, the bench observed that the matter warrants interference and ordered that all steps taken pursuant to the recount exercise would remain in abeyance till the appeal is decided. This would affect the recent declaration of Jeevaraj as the winning candidate in the 2023 Assembly election and his subsequent swearing-in as MLA, and restore Congress candidate TD Rajegowda, who had originally been declared elected.

The Court had asked for the relevant records of the reverification to be produced by the ECI. On May 21, when the records of reverification were produced, the Court also called for the original record in the Election Petition. Subsequently, adjournments happened, and the matter came up today.

As per the brief facts, the BJP candidate DN Jeevaraj challenged the result before the Karnataka High Court. The election dispute continued for nearly three years and culminated in an April 2026 order directing a recount of postal ballots. Rajegowda filed the present appeal against this order of the High Court.