Disclosure Of Form 17C May Be Used By Persons With Motivated Interests To Cast Aspersions On Electoral Process: ECI Tells Apex Court [Read Affidavit]

The Election Commission of India has filed its reply to the application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) alleging inordinate and unreasonable delay in the release of final voter turnout data and has stated that persons with motivated interests may use any disclosure of Form 17C to cast aspersions on the electoral process and may cause confusion in the minds of voters.  

The application was filed seeking directions to the ECI to upload all scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-1, which is Account of Votes Recorded, and Part-2 of all polling stations after the close of polling of each phase in ongoing elections.

On May 17, 2024, the Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra heard the matter and directed ECI to file its reply in the matter.

The ECI has submitted, "Disclosure of Form 17C in the public domain may cause confusion in the minds of the voters with regard to the total votes polled as the latter figure would include the number of votes polled as per Form 17C as well as the votes received through postal ballots. However, such differences may not be easily understood by the voters and may be used by persons with motivated interests to cast aspersion on the whole electoral process...It is submitted that for the conduct of elections, requisition of staff is undertaken under Section 159 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. As mentioned in the aforesaid provision, such staff are requisitioned from local authorities, universities, banks and other institutions of the State. Such officials are trained through a rigorous process running into months."

The present Application was filed in the pending writ petition before the Supreme Court seeking directions for investigations of alleged discrepancies and accurate reconciliation of data in the 2019 General Election.

The ECI said there is no legal mandate to provide Form 17C to anyone other than the candidate or his agent.  The Reply also stated, "The most critical aspect would be as to the location from which Form 17C should be scanned and uploaded. There are no scanners at the polling stations. Further, no internet facility is allowed at the polling stations to ensure there remains no doubt on connectivity with EVMs, even though by design that is not possible. If it is to be done centrally after aggregation by ARO or RO at sub-divisional or District headquarters, it violates the extant legal design of straight away keeping Form 17C in strong room after giving a copy to the agent of the candidate as per Rule 49S of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. Further, there may be instances where the polling staff may not be so accustomed with technological aspects or may not be apt in scanning and uploading of data."

The ECI further alleged that there are certain elements and vested interests that keep on throwing baseless and false allegations, creating an unwarranted atmosphere of suspicion in the proximity of the time of conduct of every election by the ECI, to discredit the same. Furthermore, submitted that there is a consistent malafide campaign/design/effort to keep on raising suspicion and doubt in every possible manner by misleading assertions and baseless allegations regarding the conduct of elections by the ECI.

The ECI also alleged that the ADR, during the hearing of the plea seeking 100% cross-verification of EVM-VVPAT, had relied on a news report by Manorama to contend that there was a variance in the operation of EVMs. "The inquiries had been made from the local authorities by the Election Commission of India. It was found that the said News Report was entirely untrue and was false...The Petitioner did not disclose the fact of making similar untrue and false allegations, based upon a false News Report ni Manorama, while filing the present application.", the reply stated. 

The ECI further said that the various aspects concerning the provisions of Rule 49S and Form 17(c) were already considered by the Court in the judgment dated April 26, 2024. "The petitioner, after having failed in its pursuit/design in its attempt, resulting in the judgment dated 26.04.2024, had then [in an impermissible and mischievous manner, by misusing the process of law] filed the present IA No. 115592/2024 in W.P. (Civil) No. 1382/2019 on 10.05.2024. This demonstrates the design of keeping one or another case alive in the midst of the election. The practice of creating a false narrative and creating suspicion in the minds of voters becomes much more discernible by the simultaneous one-side campaign undertaken on social media immediately after court proceedings.", it said.

ADR has prayed for directions to the ECI to upload all scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-1, which is Account of Votes Recorded, and Part-2 of all polling stations after the close of polling of each phase in ongoing elections. The Application has alleged that the ECI is not releasing the absolute number of votes polled, coupled with the unreasonable delay in the release of votes polled data, has led to apprehensions in the mind of the electorate about the sharp increase between initial data and data released on April 30, 2024.

Cause Title: Association of Democratic Reforms & Anr. v. Election Commission of India & Anr. (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1382 of 2019)

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