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15. Thus, in the event of repugnancy, it is argued, it is the physical vote which would prevail over the virtual vote.

16. Thus, it is contended that primacy has been conferred upon physical voting in case of a conflict between the two modes.

17. Learned senior counsel contends that there is no lack of transparency in the voting process and, hence, the apprehensions expressed by the plaintiff/respondent no.1 are misconceived.

18. Learned counsel arguing for the plaintiff/respondent no.1 specifically contends that the mode in which the virtual election 2025:CHC-AS:1337-DB is sought to be conducted by the NSDL will give a premium to proxy voting, which is specifically barred in respect of elections of the concerned Association.

2025:CHC-AS:1337-DB

22. It is, thus, contended that unless the temporal window of issuance of OTPs/passwords is limited rigorously to a few minutes or hours prior to the actual voting taking place, there would be scope of rampant abuse and proxy voting.

23. Learned counsel next cites an example that if a voter is disinterested in participating in the election process, he or she would just have to share his/her Login ID/password with a third party, who might be anybody, including an outsider to the Association, to derail the election process.

52. No useful purpose would be served in having the vote cast in the name of that particular voter through a third party, in other words via a proxy vote, which would be an unnecessarily roundabout process of casting such vote.

53. The concept of "proxy vote" has different shades and connotations.

54. If a person seeks to cast a vote in favour of a particular candidate but does it through somebody else, it does not make much of a difference, since it is the concerned voter who is casting the vote, by himself or through someone else.

55. It is the legitimate intention of the voter to cast the vote in favour of a particular candidate which is to be looked at.

56. A wider and more pervasive connotation of "proxy voting" in elections is that a disinterested person abstains from voting altogether and, in his place, someone else gives a proxy by 2025:CHC-AS:1337-DB casting the vote in his name, which would tantamount to impersonation.

57. Such element is not involved in the present case, if the voting is done by electronic mode, by generating a unique ID and password to each particular voter, for the simple reason that no useful purpose would be served by a voter asking someone else to vote for him if in the first place, the voter himself is of the opinion that the vote should be cast in favour of a particular candidate.