Lok Sabha Election 2024: There is no legal basis for making the data of all booths public, why did the Election Commission tell the Supreme Court?

These days, Lok Sabha elections are going on in the country and political parties calculate their victory and defeat according to the voting percentage. At the same time, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court demanding that the percentage of votes cast at each polling station be made public within 48 hours.

Regarding this, the Election Commission on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in which it has opposed this petition. The Election Commission on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that disclosing voter turnout data based on Form 17C (record of votes cast at each polling station) will create confusion among voters.

The ECI, in an affidavit filed before the top court, argued that there is no legal authority that can be claimed to publish the final certified data of voter turnout in all polling stations. It said uploading Form 17C on the website may lead to mischief and there is a possibility of tampering with images, which may create widespread inconvenience and mistrust.

It was further explained that as per the rules, Form 17C should be given only to the polling agent and the rules do not allow Form 17C to be given to any other entity. ECI told the apex court that general disclosure of Form 17C to the public is not contemplated in the rules.

The poll panel had filed the affidavit on an application by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking disclosure of the final certified data of polling at all polling stations, including the number of votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, within 48 hours of polling. Was done.