Deodhar v. Parag & Ors.
Background
Elections were held for the post of Director (General Category) of a bank (respondent no. 3), but just two days before voting, writ petitions were filed in the High Court, which passed interim orders staying the declaration of the election result pending consideration of the writ petitions. The aggrieved candidates/appellants approached the Supreme Court challenging these interim stay orders.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court found it difficult to agree with the High Court's approach of restraining the declaration of an election result through an interim order issued so close to the voting date, and noted that whether the writ petitions should even have been entertained was itself a larger question for the High Court to decide. The Court set aside the High Court's interim orders staying the result and directed the Election Officer to declare the pending results, but made the declaration expressly subject to the final outcome of the writ petitions still pending before the High Court. The appeals were allowed to this limited extent, with no order as to costs.
Lesson Learnt
Courts are generally reluctant to let last-minute interim orders freeze an already-conducted election result indefinitely: they may allow the result to be declared while still preserving the underlying legal challenge to be decided on its own merits later, so declaring a result does not itself resolve the final validity of the election.