SC Refuses To Direct EC To Upload Final Voter Turnout Data Amid Lok Sabha Elections
The bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said it cannot issue any such directions at the moment as five phases of polling have concluded and two remain.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass any interim order an NGO's plea to issue the Election Commission directions to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The top court said that it would be difficult for the poll panel to mobilise manpower.
A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said it cannot issue any such directions at the moment as five phases of polling have concluded and two remain.
The vacation bench was hearing an application by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking disclosure of final authenticated data on voter turnout in all polling stations, including the number of votes polled in the ongoing general elections within 48 hours of polling.
"See prayer B of 2019 plea and prayer A of the interim application of 2024 .. keep it side by side. Earlier decisions of Supreme Court stare at your face and say you cannot do this and one judgment of 1985 holds that it can be done but in very exceptional cases.. But in this case why you did not file this application on March 16," the Court asked, as quoted by the Bar and Bench.
"We could have filed only after there was disclosures by ECI," Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave replied on behalf of ADR.
The apex court adjourned the interlocutory application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to be listed before the regular bench after the polls and pointed out that prima facie it appears the prayers in the application are similar to the main petition pending since 2019 on the issue, as reported by news agency PTI.
The bench said it would be difficult for the poll panel to mobilise manpower for uploading the voter turnout data on its website. “Granting any relief in IA will amount to granting relief in the main petition which is pending,” the bench said, as quoted by PTI.
On May 17, the top court had sought within a week a response from the EC on the NGO's plea seeking a direction to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The ADR has filed an interim application in its 2019 PIL seeking directions to the poll panel that "scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)" of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls.
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