Supreme Court asks Election Commission to explain decision to increase number of voters in polling station

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission to explain over its decision to increase the number of voters per polling station from 1200 to 1500.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar asked the EC represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh as to how the situation would be tackled if more than 1500 voters arrived in a polling station.

Singh said that all the political parties are consulted before taking such the decision and polling stations have been accommodating the increased number of voters since 2019.

The bench also asked one polling station might have several polling booths, so if this policy would apply to a single booth- polling station also.

The court asked the EC to file a short affidavit and fixed the petition filed by Indu Prakash Singh for consideration on January 17.

The PIL challenged two communications issued by the Election Commission in August 2024 increasing the number of voters per polling stations in each constituency across India.

He claimed the decision was arbitrary and not based on any data.

Earlier on October 27, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, contended that increasing the number of voters from 1,200 to 1,500 would lead to the exclusion of underprivileged groups from the electoral process as it will take a longer time for an individual to cast vote.

He had also submitted that longer queues at the polling station and longer waiting periods would dissuade voters from going to cast their votes.