The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to examine the plea seeking disclosure of final authenticated data of voter turnout in all polling stations within 48 hours of the polling.
The plea was filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra seeking directions to the Election Commission to upload scanned, legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (account of votes recorded), on its website.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan said that the petitioners are at liberty to make a representation to the ECI within ten days.
This was after Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for ECI, said that a new Election Commissioner has been appointed and the petitioner can meet him and have their grievances redressed.
In view of the same, the Court deferred the hearing in the matter and posted the case for consideration on July 28.
"List this on week commencing July 28. In the meanwhile, counsel for ECI state that the petitioners may file a representation with ECI and the ECI will give them a hearing and inform about same in advance. Let representation be made in 10 days," the Court said in its order.
The
application by ADR was filed in May 2024 in light of the controversy surrounding the substantial increase in the final voter turn out announced by the ECI for the first two phases of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as compared to initial estimate announced on the voting day.
The application was moved by ADR in a 2019 case.
The application highlighted that the data published on April 30 showed a sharp increase (by about 5-6%) of final voter turn out as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI on the day of polling.
This coupled with the delay in announcing the voter turn out has led to concerns among voters and political parties about the correctness of such data, it was contended.
The application sought directions to the ECI to upload scanned, legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded), on its website.
The data should be uploaded after each phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 elections and must provide constituency and polling station-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers and in percentage form, the application stated.
Additionally, ADR sought disclosure of the Part- II of Form 17C which contains the candidate-wise result of counting after the compilation of results.
ADR alleged that there has been a dereliction of duty on the part of the ECI in declaring election results through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) based on accurate and indisputable data.
In response to the plea, the
ECI filed an affidavit stating that there is no legal right that can be claimed towards publishing final authenticated data of voter turnout in all polling stations.
The poll body stated that disclosure of voter turnout data based on Form 17C (votes polled in each polling station) will cause confusion among voters as it will also include postal ballot counts.
When the matter was taken up for hearing today, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for ADR, said that there was a huge discrepancy in the the EVM count and the ones who (actually) came to vote.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Mahua Moitra, also echoed similar concerns.
"How did end of the day polling of 10 become 50 next morning needs to be explained. There is a discrepancy in final list published and the ones who voted," he said.
"There is a new Chief Election Commissioner now. The petitioner can meet him and it may be addressed," Senior Advocate Maninder Singh said on behalf of ECI.
"We cannot go into this today," the CJI said.
"Why cannot the EC just scan and give it (Part- II of Form 17C)? They want to avoid the macro picture and analysis," Singhvi contended.
"Cannot the citizens know this? Are they not entitled to," Bhushan demanded.
"They (ECI) will hear you," the CJI said before deferring the hearing.
