The Supreme Court on Friday refused to direct the Election Commission of India to upload voter turnout data of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls and listed the matter for hearing on a later date, post the Court's vacation.
Hearing the plea filed by Association for Democratic Reforms, a vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said, “Prima facie we are not inclined to grant any relief at this stage.” The bench observed that granting the interim relief would mount to granting final relief on a similar plea filed in 2019. The bench said it cannot issue any such directions at the moment as five phases of polling have concluded and two remain. The bench said they are listing the applications after the vacation before the appropriate bench, Live Law reported.
The ADR has filed an interim application in its 2019 PIL seeking directions to the poll panel that "scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)" of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls.
The bench said it would be difficult for the poll panel to mobilise manpower for uploading the voter turnout data on its website.
On May 17, the top court had sought within a week a response from the Election Commission on the NGO's plea seeking a direction to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
-with inputs from agencies.