Lok Sabha Elections : Supreme Court To Hear Plea To Direct ECI To Immediately Publish Absolute Numbers Of Votes Polled On May 17

The Supreme Court will hear on Friday (May 17) a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to publish the absolute numbers of votes polled immediately after the elections.

The plea has been filed by non-profits Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause. When Advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned the case before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanan and Dipankar Datta for urgent listing, Justice Khanna clarified that the matter will be taken up on May 17.

In their application, the petitioners have stated that in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the ECI published voter turnout data after several days. The data regarding the first phase of polling held on April 19 was published after 11 days and the second phase of polling held on April 26 was published after 4 days. Also, there was a variation of over 5% in the final voter turnout data from the initial data released on the polling day.

The application has been moved as an Interlocutory Application in the writ petition filed in 2019 alleging discrepancies in the voter turn out data regarding the 2019 General Elections.

The petitioners seek direction to the ECI to :

Immediately upload on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)of all polling stations after close of polling of each phase in the on-going 2024 Lok Sabha elections;

Provide tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled as recorded in Form 17C Part- I after each phase of polling in the on-going 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also a tabulation of constituency-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers in the on-going 2024 Lok Sabha election;

To upload on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part- II which contains the candidate-wise Result of Counting after the compilation of results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections;

For more details about the application, click here.

Case : Association for Democratic Reforms & Anr. v. Union of India | WP(C) 1382 OF 2019