SC notice to EC on TMC MP's plea for disclosure of data

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Election Commission on a plea by TMC MP Mahua Moitra for a direction to the poll panel to publish constituency-wise final result sheet, an account of votes recorded and the result of counting of votes in Parliamentary and Assembly elections.

By way of convention, the EC published 'Form 20' of every constituency of Parliament and Assembly elections since 2004, but the practice discontinued in 2019 Lok Sabha polls without disclosing any reason, her plea stated.

She sought a direction to put in place a strict timeline of 48 hours to seven days for revealing the data, along with a grievance redressal mechanism to address complaints on breach of guidelines.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant admitted the petition for consideration after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for her, contended there were discrepancies reported in several constituencies in parliamentary elections.

“The faith of the electorate in the democratic process is being severely affected in absence of publishing of Form 17C Part I, Form 17C Part II and Form 20 results for each constituency. Disclosing primary data would ensure the integrity of the election process in the final result sheet,” her plea stated.

These forms were not accessible to the general public, in the absence of a rule providing for publication or due reporting, she added in her petition.

Form 17C Part I records the total number of votes tendered at every EVM. The Form 17C Part II records the number of votes secured by candidates in each EVM. Form 20 reflects the final tally of votes counted based on EVMs for each round, along with postal votes.

NGOs, Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause have filed a separate plea in the top court seeking a direction to the Election Commission to investigate discrepancies in the 17th Lok Sabha election results, alleging differences were recorded in voter turnout and votes counted in as many as in 347 parliamentary seats.