Ahead of counting of votes in the general elections, the Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine a PIl to stop ward-wise counting procedure adopted for announcing results.
The petitioner, a Punjab-based lawyer Yogesh Gupta argued that by making results of each polling booth public, the secrecy of vote stood compromised and it allowed the winning candidates to adversely treat voters of a particular booth or booths who did not vote for them.
The Vacation Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and NV Ramana issued notice on the petition seeking EC’s response by May 21. The court was concerned over the right to privacy of voters being violated. The petition demanded that instead of announcing booth-wise results, the Commission should disclose the results of the constituency as a whole.
It is for the first time the issue of counting has come under judicial scrutiny. The petition cited a recent report where Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar threatened to cut water supply to voters of Baramati village if they failed to vote in favour of sitting NCP MP Supriya Sule. This in turn affected balanced growth of constituencies and encouraged political vendetta, ill will and hatred following the elections.