Supreme Court denies interim order on booth-wise voter data
- May 25, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Supreme Court denies interim order on booth-wise voter data
Sub: Polity
Sec: Elections
Tag: Form 17C
Context:
- The Supreme Court on May 24 refused an NGO’s plea to issue the Election Commission of India to upload authenticated, scanned and legible copies of Form 17C showing the account of votes recorded booth wise after each phase of polling in Lok Sabha elections.
Key Highlights of the case:
- A Vacation Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said the nation is on the evening of the sixth phase of General Elections.
- The court said it did not want to divert the attention of the Election Commission (EC) in the middle of the elections.
- The NGO had argued the data published by the EC in its April 30 press release had shown a sharp increase (by about 5-6%) from the initial percentages announced by it on the polling day.
- In an interim relief sought by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its application for publication of voter turnout data in Form 17C was already part of relief sought in a petition pending since 2019.
What is Form 17C?
- The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 require the EC to maintain two forms- Forms 17A and 17C.
- Form 17A records the details of every voter who enters a polling booth and casts their vote.
- Form 17C contains the total number of votes cast.
- Under rule 49S(2), the presiding officer has to provide a copy of the data entered in Form 17C to the polling agents of candidates at the time of the close of polling.
- The data recorded in Part I of Form 17C includes
- the unique ID number of the EVM used at a particular polling booth,
- the total number of voters enlisted at that booth,
- the total number of voters who entered the polling booth and whose details were validated on Form 17A,
- the number of voters who did not vote despite signing on the register,
- the number of voters who were not allowed to vote,
- the number of test votes, and the number of total votes recorded in the EVM.
- Part II of Form 17C is used to record the results of the election.
What makes Form 17C data important?
- The data in Form 17C is used by candidates to verify the details provided during counting, such as the ID number of the EVM and the number of votes polled per polling station.
- The candidates can challenge a result if there is a discrepancy between the data in Form 17C and the data emanating from the counting center.
- They can also file petitions in the high court challenging the election result on the basis of the mismatch between the counting data and the figures in Form 17C.
The Election Commission’s response:
- The Commission maintained there is no legal mandate for it to make public the total number of votes cast in each polling station.
- It says copies of Form 17C are shared with the polling agents present immediately upon the close of polling.
- It says candidates are aware and in possession of the exact voter turnout data in absolute numbers even before it is known to the Commission.
- On the issue of significant difference between the initial voter turnout percentage and the final figures, the Commission said voters continue to vote even after 6pm due to long queues at polling stations.