The Supreme Court of India upheld the 2023 election of K Y Nanjegowda from Malur after a court-ordered recount confirmed his victory. The verdict set aside the Karnataka High Court’s earlier order and closed the election dispute for good.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the election of Congress leader K Y Nanjegowda as the MLA from the Malur constituency in Kolar district of Karnataka, putting an end to the long-running legal dispute over the 2023 Assembly election results.
The case was heard by a Bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. During the hearing, the Bench examined the outcome of the vote recount and noted that even after recounting, Nanjegowda had secured more votes than his rival, BJP candidate K S Manjunath Gowda. Senior advocate A M Singhvi appeared before the Court on behalf of Nanjegowda.
The Supreme Court set aside the Karnataka High Court’s September 2025 judgment which had earlier cancelled the Congress leader’s election and ordered a recount of votes. The apex court made it clear that the recount did not change the final result in any way.
During the proceedings, the Bench opened the sealed cover containing the recount results in the presence of both parties. After examining the figures, the Court observed that Nanjegowda continued to remain the winner even after the recount exercise.
The Bench noted that Nanjegowda received 50,957 votes, while his opponent Manjunath Gowda secured 50,707 votes, giving the Congress leader a clear lead of 250 votes.
Referring to the outcome, the Supreme Court said,
“That being so, the election of the candidate from Malur remains unaffected even after compliance with the direction of recounting of votes issued by the high court. Consequently, we allow this appeal, to the extent that the impugned decision of setting aside the election of appellant is set aside and the election of the appellant from Malur is upheld,”.
In the Karnataka Assembly elections held in 2023, Nanjegowda had originally won the Malur seat by a narrow margin of 248 votes against BJP’s Manjunath Gowda. Following the close result, the BJP candidate approached the Karnataka High Court by filing an election petition, alleging irregularities in the counting of votes and seeking a recount.
The High Court accepted the plea, set aside the election result, and directed a recount of the votes along with a fresh declaration of the outcome. Challenging this decision, Nanjegowda moved the Supreme Court, arguing that the High Court’s order was unjustified.
In October last year, the Supreme Court had allowed the recount to proceed but directed the Returning Officer to submit the recount results in a sealed cover to the apex court.
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After reviewing those results, the Supreme Court has now conclusively ruled in favour of the Congress leader, confirming that the recount did not alter the original mandate given by the voters of Malur.
With this verdict, the Supreme Court has restored Nanjegowda’s position as the duly elected MLA from Malur and brought final closure to the election dispute that followed the closely contested 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.
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