The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (May 24) adjourned the application seeking to direct the Election Commission to publish booth-wise absolute numbers of voter turnout and upload form 17C copies on its website.
The bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said a “hands-off” approach during the elections was required as it listed the matter to be heard after summer vacations, LiveLaw reported.
The application that sought publication of voter data was filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause. A writ petition filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra in 2019, alleging discrepancies in the voter turnout data of the 2019 General Elections, was also listed along with it.
“The arguments on the interim application were heard. Prima facie we are not inclined to grant any relief on the interim application at this stage in view of similarities of the prayer (a) of the interim application with prayer (b) of the writ petition out of which the Interim Application arises. The grant of relief in the interim application would amount to the grant of final relief. Relist the application together with the writ petitions before the appropriate bench after vacations. We have not expressed any opinion on merits except the prima facie view indicated above,” the court said referring to a similar prayer made by ADR in a writ petition it had filed in 2019.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh appearing on behalf of the EC contended that ADR’s application was based on “unfounded suspicions” and “false allegations”. Attacking the petitioner, Singh said that this was a “classic case of abuse of the law, to erode the integrity of the elections.”
Also read: ‘Mischief’ in the EC’s Argument: The Commission Has Contradicted Its Own Handbook
Singh said the Supreme Court had previously questioned the bona fides of the ADR in the VVPAT case and that on the same day the judgment was delivered, the new application “was churned out by the factory”.
Singh’s statement was in line with the abrasive remarks in the EC’s affidavit filed in response to ADR’s application on Wednesday, where it said that there are “certain elements with vested interests who keep on throwing baseless and false allegations, creating unwarranted atmosphere of suspicion – in the close proximity of time of conduct of every election by the Election Commission of India, to somehow discredit the same.”
According to LiveLaw, when Dushyant Dave, appearing for ADR, contended that the VVPAT case was an entirely different issue, Justice Dutta said, “Let us hear what Mr. Maninder has to say.”
When Dave took the floor, Justice Datta said, “We have some questions,” LiveLaw reported.
Justice Datta asked why the petitioner did not raise this issue before March 16, when elections were notified, and filed the application only after April 26 when the process had already begun.
Dave replied that the issue only arose after the EC made the disclosures regarding the voter turnout in the ongoing elections.
The bench, expressed reluctance to get involved at this stage and said, “Tomorrow is the 6th phase, 5 phases are over….this particular compliance that you are insisting upon would require manpower, it is not possible during this period. We have to be very conscious of the ground reality, we feel this could be heard after the vacations,”
In its counter-affidavit filed ahead of the hearing, the EC had argued that there was no legal mandate for the commission to disclose voter turnout data based on Form 17C, or the record of votes polled in each polling station, and that such disclosure could be susceptible to misuse.
The EC had also previously argued in court that publishing form 17C data was time consuming, however the commission’s own handbook states that the data is available instantaneously.