SC to hear PIL challenging EC's decision to increase voter count per polling booth

Supreme Court to hear PIL challenging Election Commission's decision to increase voters per polling station to 1,500.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday (December 2, 2024) a PIL petition challenging the Election Commission's decision to increase the maximum number of voters per polling station from 1,200 to 1,500.

A Bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar will take up the PIL petition filed by Indu Prakash Singh, who has challenged two communications issued by the EC in August increasing the number of voters per polling station in each constituency across India.

Ms. Singh has contended that the decision to increase the number of voters per polling booth was arbitrary and not based on any data.

On October 24, the top court refused to issue any notice to the poll panel but allowed the petitioner to serve the copy to the standing counsel of the EC so that its stand on the issue is known.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, contended that increasing the number of voters from 1,200 to 1,500 would lead to the exclusion of underprivileged groups from the electoral process as it will take a longer time for an individual to cast their franchise.

He had also submitted that longer queues at the polling station and longer waiting periods would dissuade voters from going to cast their votes.

The Bench, however, said that the poll panel wants more and more people to vote and with the use of EVMs, it takes a shorter time compared to ballot papers.