New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to pass any direction on a plea seeking the uploading of Form 17C data on the Election Commission of India website and publication of booth-wise voter turnout data.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and Satish Chandra Sharma refused to grant any interim relief to petitioners and said it could not interrupt the polls.
The bench said that of the seven-phase elections, five phases are over, and the sixth phase is scheduled for Saturday.
The "hands-off" approach is needed in the middle of the election process, observed the apex court while adjourning the application. The bench told the petitioner that the interim prayer raised in the present application was the same as of the petition pending before it since 2019.
“Prima facie we are not inclined to grant any interim relief since prayer A of the 2019 petition is similar to prayer B of the 2024 application.
List the interim plea after (summer) vacation," ordered the bench.
The apex court clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case apart from the prima facie view.
The apex court was hearing an application filed by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking disclosure of final authenticated data of voter turnout in all polling stations including the number of votes polled in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 within 48 hours of the polling. (with ANI inputs)
