SC To Hear ADR's Plea Flagging Delay, Variation In ECI's Voter Turnout Data On May 17

The Supreme Court will hear an application moved by the Association for Democratic Reforms seeking direction to the ECI to immediately publish the absolute numbers of Voter Turnout Data on May 17.

The Supreme Court will hear an application moved by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately publish the absolute numbers of Voter Turnout Data on May 17. In its petition the ADR flaged the delay by the ECI and stated that in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the ECI published the voter turnout data of the phases after several days.

According to ADR, the data regarding the first phase of polling held on April 19 was published after 11 days and the second phase of polling held on April 26 was published after 4 days.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for ADR mentioned the matter before the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta on Monday. The court informed Bhushan that the plea will be taken up on May 17.

The plea has also flagged a a variation of over 5% in the final voter turnout data from the initial data released on polling day

"The data as published by the ECI in its press release dated April 30, 2024 shows a sharp increase (by about 5-6%) as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI as of 7 PM on the day of polling. It is submitted that the inordinate delay in the release of final voter turnout data, coupled with the unusually high revision (of over 5%) in the ECI's press note of April 30, 2024, and the absence of disaggregated constituency and polling station figures in absolute numbers, has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data," stated the application.

ADR moved as an Interlocutory Application in the writ petition filed by it in 2019 alleging discrepancies in the voter turn out data regarding the 2019 General Elections.

The application seeks direction to ECI to immediately upload on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded) of all polling stations after close of polling of each phase in the on-going 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

It further seeks tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled as recorded in Form 17C Part- I after each phase of polling in the on-going 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also a tabulation of constituency-wise figures of voter turnout data in absolute numbers.