THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, May 24: On a plea by an NGO seeking the uploading of Form 17C data on the Election Commission of India website and the disclosure of booth-by-booth voter participation statistics, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to issue any directives.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma stated that, as five phases of polling have been completed and two are yet to take place, they cannot issue such directives at the moment.
SC cites similarity with previous petition
The Supreme Court deferred the interlocutory application filed by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to be heard by the regular bench after the elections. It noted that the requests/prayers in the application appear to resemble those in the primary petition, which has been pending since 2019.
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“Prima facie we are not inclined to grant any interim relief since prayer A of the 2019 petition is similar to prayer B of the 2024 application. List the interim plea after (summer) vacation,” ordered the bench.
Difficult for ECI to organize manpower
The bench remarked that it might pose difficulties for the poll panel to organize manpower for uploading the voter turnout data on its website.
An NGO named Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), filed the plea demanding the disclosure of authenticated final data regarding voter turnout in all polling stations, along with the total number of votes cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, within 48 hours of polling.
