CJI agrees to hear plea on delay by ECI in publishing voter turnout data

Chief Justice of India to hear NGO's plea on delay in voter turnout data publication by Election Commission.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday agreed to hear urgently at the end of the day an application filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms alleging inordinate delay in the publication of voter turnout data of the first two phases of polling in the Lok Sabha elections.

The NGO said that, besides delay in publishing the voter-turnout details, there was also a sharp spike in figures from the initial voter turnout percentages released by the Election Commission (EC), raising alarm bells in the public’s minds about the authenticity of the polling data available in the public domain.

The CJI agreed to hear the application at the end of the board of cases for the day and asked the EC counsel, advocate Amit Sharma, to take instructions.

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Chief Justice Chandrachud said the court too needed time to go through the application.

Mr. Bhushan said the application was mentioned on May 13 before a Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. The CJI had been abroad on an official trip. Justice Khanna had agreed to list the case on May 17 for hearing.

“I don’t know why it was listed in the mentioning list,” Mr. Bhushan told the CJI Bench.