New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday took a stern view of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) inability to trace a video recording of the 2023 vote counting in Karnataka’s Sringeri Assembly constituency. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Sanjeev Sachdeva expressed surprise at the Election Commission’s submission that it could not locate the footage, questioning how the poll body could lose records relating to an election it was responsible for conducting.
The court rejected the ECI’s explanation that efforts were being made to trace the recording and directed it to produce whatever records it had on the next date of hearing. The court’s observations came during the hearing of a dispute over the Sringeri Assembly seat, where Congress leader TD Rajegowda was initially declared the winner in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections by a margin of just 201 votes.
The bench was told that Rajegowda wanted access to the election observer’s report and video recordings of both the original counting exercise in 2023 and the subsequent recount. When the court indicated that the ECI should produce the relevant documents and recordings, senior advocate Seshadri Naidu, appearing for the poll body, said the video of the original counting could not be traced.
“Where is the question of you saying, ‘Yeah, we are trying to trace it’? You gave it to the elected candidate. There is no custody of records,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench. The bench reiterated that the Commission must place whatever material was available before it at the next hearing, warning that failure to do so could have consequences. The dispute stems from Jeevaraj’s election petition before the Karnataka High Court, challenging Rajegowda’s victory in the 2023 Assembly election.
The returning officer formally declared a revised result on May 3, 2026. Rajegowda’s vote tally was reportedly reduced by 255 votes, and Jeevaraj was declared the winner. Rajegowda subsequently approached the Supreme Court, challenging the revised result and the process adopted during the recount. Rajegowda argued that the High Court had ordered only the re-verification of 279 rejected postal ballots. He alleged that the returning officer went beyond that direction by reconsidering 562 postal ballots that had already been accepted as valid and were in his favour.
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