Supreme Court to urgently hear plea on ‘delay’ in voter turnout data publication on May 17

Supreme Court to urgently hear application on delay in voter turnout data publication for Lok Sabha elections.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to urgently hear on May 17 an application alleging inordinate delay in the publication of voter turnout data of the first two phases of polling in the Lok Sabha elections.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna made the announcement on Monday during an oral mentioning made by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, appearing for Association for Democratic Reforms, the petitioner NGO which filed the application.

Mr. Bhushan had urged for an early hearing by the court in the background of the ongoing elections.

Besides delay in publishing the voter-turnout details, the application said there was a sharp spike in figures from the initial voter turnout percentages released by the Election Commission (EC).

Mr. Bhushan said both these developments, post polling in the initial phases, had raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the accuracy of the data.

The plea has urged the court to direct the EC to disclose authenticated record of voter turnout by uploading on its website scanned legible copies of account of votes recorded at polling stations after each phase of voting in the on-going Lok Sabha elections. Rule 49S and Rule 56C(2) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 require the presiding officer to prepare an account of votes recorded in form 17C (Part I) and the returning officer to record the number of votes in favour of each candidate.

Also read | Civil society members, former bureaucrats urge ECI to disclose record of voter turnouts