Form 17C provides important details about the number of votes cast at each polling station. The public interest litigation (PIL) also seeks an urgent interim order from the Supreme Court, directing the Election Commission to upload Form 17C for the upcoming Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 and all future elections without delay.
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leaders have approached the Supreme Court. They have filed a petition requesting that the Election Commission of India (ECI) be directed to upload Form 17C on its official website immediately after polling concludes.
ALSO READ: ECI to SC: “No Legal Mandate to Disclose Voter Turnout Data Under Form 17C”
Form 17C provides important details about the number of votes cast at each polling station. The public interest litigation (PIL) also seeks an urgent interim order from the Supreme Court, directing the Election Commission to upload Form 17C for the upcoming Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 and all future elections without delay.
The PIL has been submitted on behalf of Amethi Congress MP Kishori Lal Sharma and Congress spokesperson Alok Sharma. Their plea argues that the Election Commission must be legally obligated to make Form 17C publicly available by uploading it on its website as soon as polling ends.
Form 17C contains crucial election-related information, including:
- The number of voters at each polling station.
- The total number of registered voters in the area.
- The number of voters who did not cast their votes.
- The names of candidates and the votes each one received.
- The votes counted through an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) along with its identification number.
This form is particularly significant in case of legal challenges regarding election results.
The petition highlights that discrepancies in voter turnout figures released by the Election Commission have been noticed in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The plea states that withholding Form 17C from the public weakens people’s trust in the election system and violates the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The petition further alleges that the Election Commission has failed to make this crucial election data available on any government website or public portal on the same day as polling.
On 22nd May, The Election Commission of India (ECI) submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court stating that there is no legal right to claim the publication of final authenticated data on voter turnout in all polling stations.
The ECI’s stance comes in response to an application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-governmental organization, seeking the disclosure of final voter turnout data within 48 hours of the polling in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The ECI’s affidavit argued that the disclosure of Form 17C (which records the votes polled in each polling station) could cause confusion among voters, as it would include postal ballot counts. The ECI stated that the difference between the figures in Form 17C and the final voter turnout (including postal ballots) may not be easily understood by voters and could be exploited by “persons with motivated interests” to cast aspersions on the electoral process.
“In any electoral contest, the margin of victory can be very narrow. In such instances, publicly disclosing Form 17C may create confusion among voters regarding the total votes cast, as the final figure would combine the votes recorded in Form 17C with those from postal ballots. This distinction may not be easily understood by voters and could be exploited by individuals with vested interests to undermine the entire electoral process, potentially causing chaos within the election system already in operation,” the affidavit stated.
In its affidavit, the Election Commission of India (ECI) criticized the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), asserting that “vested interests” continuously make false allegations to undermine its operations.
“There is an ongoing malicious campaign designed to perpetually cast doubt and suspicion through misleading claims and unfounded accusations about the conduct of elections by the Election Commission of India… The pattern and intention are to sow distrust, causing damage before the truth is revealed,” the affidavit stated.
By ensuring that Form 17C is uploaded immediately, the Congress leaders believe that transparency will be improved and chances of electoral fraud can be minimized.
Earlier, The NGO, in its 2019 PIL, filed an interim application urging the Election Commission to upload scanned copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded) immediately after the conclusion of the polls. It further requested the commission provide tabulated data of polling station-wise and constituency-wise voter turnout figures in absolute numbers for the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The primary objective of the plea is to safeguard the integrity of the democratic process by addressing concerns related to electoral irregularities. The NGO highlighted the delay in releasing the voter turnout data for the initial two phases of the ongoing elections.
