SC turns down plea seeking direction to upload booth-wise voter turnout data

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain an NGO's plea seeking directions to upload voter turnout data of each polling station on its website during the Lok Sabha election.

A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said that it cannot issue any such directions at the moment as five phases of polling have concluded and two remain.

It also noted that it would be difficult for the Election Commission to mobile manpower for uploading the voter turnout data on its website.

"We should also keep in mind the ground realities and not overburden the EC during the elections that too by changing the process midway," it said.

The top court adjourned the interlocutory application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to be listed before the regular bench after the elections 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.

“Granting any relief in IA will amount to granting relief in the main petition which is pending,” the bench said.

"In between elections, hands-off approach has to be taken. Let the application be heard along with the main writ petition. We cannot interrupt the process. Let us have some trust in the authority," Justice Datta orally said, according to LiveLaw.

On May 17, the top court had sought within a week a response from the Election Commission 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.

(With PTI inputs)

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