NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it is willing to deliberate over the demand for uploading booth-wise voter turnout data on its website.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan asked the petitioners to make representations before the poll panel in 10 days.
During the hearing of the two PILs filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in 2019, the poll panel told the top court that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar wanted to meet and discuss the grievance with the petitioners.
“Here is a new chief election commissioner now. The petitioners can meet him and it may be addressed,” senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the poll panel, said.
The CJI replied, “In the meanwhile, the counsel for the Election Commission states that the petitioners (the NGO and the MP) may file a representation with the Election Commission and the EC will give them a hearing and inform them in advance. Let the representation be made in 10 days.”
On May 17, last year, the top court had sought a response from the poll panel on the pleas following which the ECI opposed the NGO’s demand contending it would “vitiate” the electoral space and cause “chaos” in the poll machinery in the midst of the general elections.
The ADR claims that there was a “5-6%” discrepancy between the initial voter turnout data released on the day of polling and the final data published later.
The PILs argue that the delay in publishing accurate voter turnout data raises concerns about the transparency and integrity of the election process.