Election Commission to Delhi High Court: City Lok Sabha 2024 Footage 'Destroyed'
The Wire Staff
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The Election Commission of India has informed the Delhi high court that CCTV footage of the seven District Election Officers (DEOs) in the national capital stand destroyed.
The Election Commission had, in June, directed state election officers to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of the election process after 45 days, if the decision was not challenged in courts within that period. It was seen as a bid to curb what the commission called “malicious narratives” using its electronic data.
The statement by the Election Commission was taken on record by Justice Mini Pushkarna, LiveLaw has reported. This happened while the court was hearing an application filed by advocate Mehmood Pracha which had sought the footage from inside the polling stations across the country during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In his plea, Pracha had sought that the poll body direct District Election Officers across the country to supply CCTV footage of the election process. He had also sought that the footage should not be destroyed as long as the matter was pending in court.
“…as of today, the data as sought by the petitioner, i.e., the video/CCTV footage pertaining to the Lok Sabha Elections, 2024, is no longer in the custody of the DEOs in Delhi and already stands destroyed,” the court was quoted as saying.
In court, Pracha said that the Election Commission’s new directions were issued to defeat his petition have been issued by the poll body, solely to defeat his petition filed and to destroy the evidence.
The Election Commission on the other hand said that Pracha had not challenged the new instructions.
“Noting the aforesaid, no orders can be passed by this Court in the present application, for the time being. Accordingly, the present application is disposed of," the court was quoted as saying.
Earlier in August, Chief Election Commission Gyanesh Kumar at a press conference had cited voter privacy for not sharing CCTV footage and asked if footage of "mothers, daughters, daughters-in-law" be made public.
“Should anybody’s CCTV footage, including your mothers, daughters, daughters-in-law be made public?” he had said.
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