New Delhi. The Supreme Court refused to give any direction to the Election Commission regarding uploading the voting percentage data on the Commission’s website within 48 hours of the end of the elections and rejected the petition of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Hearing this petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Mahua Moitra, the bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said that we cannot interfere in the elections and we have to adopt a restrained approach in this matter.
Earlier, during the last hearing, the Supreme Court had asked the Election Commission to file its reply in this matter. The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that false allegations are being made against the Commission regarding the voting percentage based on apprehensions. The Election Commission refused to make the data of Form 17C public and said that according to the rules, Form 17C should be given only to the polling agent. It is not right to disclose it publicly. Uploading Form 17C on the website may cause confusion, which may create distrust among the public.
Senior Election Commission lawyer Maninder Singh said that such an attitude always puts a question mark on the purity of elections. When elections are going on, these petitions with vested interests should not be heard. Along with this, he said that all this is a lie being spread deliberately. Maninder Singh also demanded the Supreme Court to impose a heavy fine on the petitioners for this. The Supreme Court also questioned the timing of filing the petition and asked the petitioner’s lawyer Dushyant Dave why this petition was filed after the elections started?