Supreme Court to Issue Guidelines for Election Grievances, Rejects Roving Inquiry

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana ruled that allegations of wrongful exclusion of candidates in the Andhra Pradesh municipal elections involve disputed factual questions that cannot be resolved during the ongoing poll process.

"We will not order a fishing or roving inquiry. We will issue a set of guidelines so that it can be followed," CJI Surya Kant said.

The court indicated it will consider guidelines to protect the electoral process, such as preserving CCTV recordings, and clarified that aggrieved candidates may seek relief through election petitions.

The bench was reviewing compliance with earlier directives that required the State Election Commission (SEC) to examine complaints from candidates who claimed they were prevented from filing nominations due to violence or intimidation in districts including Kadapa, Tirupati, Punganur and Rayachoti.

On October 21, a vacation bench of Justices Bagchi and Mohana ordered the SEC to consider representations, including electronic evidence, and to extend nomination deadlines where law-and-order issues had impeded filing. The commission was also told to postpone publishing the final candidate list until October 25.

Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, representing the YSR Congress Party, argued that roughly 1,200 candidates in the second phase of local body elections were barred from filing nominations and urged the court to adopt the procedural mechanism used in the Punjab elections. The court responded that it could not examine each allegation individually during the election and that the matter lay beyond its immediate jurisdiction.

The chief justice indicated that comprehensive guidelines will be issued to safeguard future electoral processes, distinguishing them from earlier judicial interventions that were limited to exceptional circumstances.