SC refuses to direct ECI to publish data on total votes polled per booth

“The Supreme Court of India, on Friday, May 24th, refused to issue directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide the total votes, along with the percentage, from all polling booths. The court instructed the petitioners to submit their requests after the elections are concluded.

In relation to a 2019 case, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed an interim plea seeking the disclosure of final voter turnout data from all polling stations, including the number of votes cast in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, within 48 hours of polling. Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra filed a writ petition in 2019 highlighting discrepancies in the voter turnout data from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

During the hearing, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma informed the petitioner that a similar petition had been pending before the court since 2019 and declined to grant any interim relief. Justice Datta was quoted by LiveLaw as saying, ‘During elections, a hands-off approach must be adopted. Let the application be heard alongside the main writ petition. We cannot disrupt the process. Let us trust the authority to some extent.’

On Wednesday, May 22nd, the ECI, in an affidavit, informed the court that they are not required to publish the requested data. The electoral body stated that disclosing voter turnout data based on Form 17C, which includes votes cast at each booth, would confuse voters as it would also encompass postal ballot counts. They asserted that the application was based on ‘unfounded suspicions’ and ‘false allegations.’

ADR’s application raised concerns about the accuracy of the data and noted that the final voting percentage published on April 30th showed a significant increase (by approximately 5-6%) compared to the initial percentages announced by the ECI on polling day.”