SC orders EVM recount, overturns Sarpanch election in Panipat
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has overturned the election of the Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Buana Lakhu in Haryana’s Panipat district after a court-monitored recount found the appellant securing the highest number of votes.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and N.K. Singh ordered the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Election Officer, Panipat, to issue a notification within two days declaring the appellant, Mohit Kumar, elected, and allowing him to assume office immediately.
The election for the Sarpanch’s post was held on November 2, 2022, in which the respondent, Kuldeep Singh, was declared elected. Mohit Kumar challenged the result before the Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)- cum-Election Tribunal, which, on April 22, 2025, found grounds for recounting the votes at a booth. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court overturned that decision on July 1, prompting Mohit Kumar to appeal to the apex court.
In an order passed on July 31, the Justice Kant-led Bench directed the District Election Officer to produce all the EVMs before the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
“The nominated Registrar shall recount the votes, not only of the disputed booth but of all the booths. The recounting shall be duly video-graphed. [T]he recount result shall be duly signed by the learned Registrar, the petitioner and the respondent no.1 or their authorised representative as well as the learned assisting counsel,” it ordered.
Pursuant to the top court’s directive, the OSD (Registrar) recounted the votes from all booths, with the final tally showing Mohit Kumar securing 1,051 votes against Kuldeep Singh’s 1,000.
Accepting the recount, the Justice Surya Kant-Bench observed: “There being prima facie no reason to doubt the Report submitted by the OSD (Registrar) of this Court, especially when the entire recounting has been duly videographed and its result is signed by the representatives of the parties, we are satisfied that the appellant deserves to be declared as the elected Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Buana Lakhu Village, District Panipat, Haryana.”
However, in the interest of justice, the apex court allowed the parties to agitate the issues, if any, left to be adjudicated by the Election Tribunal, saying that “the Election Tribunal… shall accept the Report of the OSD (Registrar) of this Court as the final and conclusive report so far as the result of recounting of votes is concerned.”
It clarified that the direction to declare the appellant as the elected Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Buana Lakhu in Panipat would remain subject to the final judgment of the Election Tribunal.
Disposing of the appeal along with all pending applications, the Supreme Court set aside the impugned Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment, as the recounting of votes had been completed following its order.