SC Refuses To Direct EC To Disclose Booth Wise Voter Turnout After Each Phase Of Polling For Lok Sabha Elections

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to issue directions to the Election Commission on a plea for uploading polling booth-wise voter turnout data on its website during the Lok Sabha elections and favoured a “hands-off attitude” amidst an ongoing electoral process.

A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma adjourned the hearing on the application and said it will be heard after the Lok Sabha elections are over.

It said the 2024 elections are spread over seven phases out of which five are already over and the sixth is on May 25.

Last week, a bench



headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), D.Y. Chandrachud, granted the Election Commission of India (ECI) one week to respond to an application seeking directions for the disclosure of scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded) for all polling stations containing the authenticated figures for votes polled, within 48 hours of the close of polling.

The plea also demanded that the ECI should provide a tabulation of constituency and polling station-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers and percentage form for the ongoing general elections.