The Supreme Court in response to an application by an NGO, has sought a response from the Election Commission (EC) to explain an increase in voting percentage data shortly after polling could indicate suspicions or discrepancies in the reported numbers.The plea filed by NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause has sought a direction to the EC to upload scanned copies of Form 17-C, which records the number of votes polled in a booth.A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has asked the EC to submit its response to the application by May 24, a day before the sixth and seventh phase of the Lok Sabha election. According to the sources, the court might be seeking to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of the electoral process. Apart from this, ADR has directed the EC to publish the voting data within 48 hours of polling. The bench asked “What is the problem in putting the turnout data on the website,” responding to which EC counsel said, “It takes time to collect so much data.”Advocate Amit Sharma who was presenting the election body, said that the poll panel has to get the form from every booth of the constituency and the Returning Officer has to go through the data so that there is no mismatch.The top court also noted that after 11 days following the first phase of polling on April 19 and four days after the second phase of polling on April 26, the voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections was released by ECI on April 30.The data, as published by the ECI in its press release dated April 30, 2024, shows a sharp increase (by about 5-6 percent) as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI as of 7 pm on the day of polling, the petition stated.In the petition, it was claimed that the inordinate delay in the release of the final voter turnout figures and the press note from the poll panels unusually high revision of more than 5% has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data.
