The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday offered to engage with petitioners demanding the immediate disclosure of authenticated voter turnout records

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday offered to engage with petitioners demanding the immediate disclosure of authenticated voter turnout records, after which the Supreme Court deferred the hearing on the matter.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan, took note of ECI’s submission regarding new chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s willingness to have a deliberation with the petitioners, who were then granted the liberty to file representations and attend a meeting with the poll body.

The petitions, filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), challenge ECI’s reluctance to publish Form 17C, a key electoral document that records votes cast at each polling station.

During the hearing, senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing ECI, informed the court that the new CEC had instructed the commission’s counsel to convey that the poll body is open to discussions. Gyanesh Kumar took over as the CEC on February 19.

“The new CEC has just taken over and he has instructed me that ECI is willing to meet them and listen to their issues and resolve if there is anything left,” Singh submitted.

Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Moitra, pointed out that ECI’s affidavit had stated that disclosure of Form 17C was “neither desirable nor required.” Singhvi contended that the commission was avoiding the publication of voter turnout data to prevent the “macro picture” from emerging.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for ADR, reiterated the petitioners’ demand for greater transparency, arguing that discrepancies had been observed between the number of votes cast and the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) records. “There may not be polling agents everywhere, but aren’t the citizens equal stakeholders? Don’t they have the right to know?” Bhushan asked.

After hearing the submissions, the bench allowed the petitioners to file representations within two weeks and attend the proposed meeting with ECI. The matter is now scheduled for hearing in July.

The petitions earlier came up for hearing in May 2024 during the Lok Sabha elections, when the Supreme Court declined to intervene, citing the necessity of a “hands-off approach” during an active electoral process. A vacation bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma had then held that issuing directives to ECI in the midst of the elections could interfere with the process.

The court had also noted that ADR’s petition was originally filed in 2019, questioning why the organisation had waited until April 2024 -- after the elections had begun -- to seek relief.

Form 17C is a key election document that records key polling station data. Part I contains details such as the number of electors assigned to a polling station, registered voters, electors who did not vote, and total votes recorded on EVMs. Part II includes candidate-wise vote counts and is signed by polling agents before being checked by the returning officer.

Polling agents receive a copy of Form 17C at the end of polling, but ECI has historically not made it publicly available online. ADR’s petition seeks the publication of scanned copies of these records for all polling stations, along with detailed constituency-wise turnout data in absolute numbers and percentage form.

Opposition parties have also raised alarm over the alleged delay in the release of final voter turnout data, demanding the immediate publication of authenticated data by ECI.

ECI, however, has defended its position, citing logistical challenges and potential risks associated with the public disclosure of Form 17C. The poll body argued that indiscriminate online publication of the document could be “amenable to mischief,” leading to possible manipulation of images and public mistrust in the electoral process.

“The legal regime with regard to Form 17C is peculiar that while it authorises the polling agent at the close of the poll to get a copy of Form 17C, a general disclosure of the nature as sought by the petitioner is not provided in the statutory framework,” ECI said in its 2024 affidavit, while arguing that the current procedures and disclosures are sufficient and legally mandated. It added that Form 17C is never uploaded immediately after polling.

To be sure, voting percentages typically increase in the days following the release of the provisional turnout since it takes time for the poll workers to return from remote polling places located in difficult-to-reach geographic areas, depending on a variety of factors, including the weather. Re-polling in any constituency may also be the cause of the data update delay.