Centre, Election Commission at loggerheads in SC on vote counting issue
NEW DELHI: The Centre and Election Commission are at loggerheads in the Supreme Court on the issue of doing away with the present system of booth-wise counting of votes and replace it with cluster counting to protect the voters' right to privacy and ensure that people are not victimised by political parties for not casting votes in their favour.
The Commission told the SC on Friday that it was against booth-wise declaration of vote count in polls and asked the Centre to amend rules to introduce cluster counting to protect the right to privacy attached to voting.
But the Centre rejected the proposal saying the present system is more beneficial and that its Group of Ministers headed by the home minister, had rejected the proposal.
Appearing before a bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice M M Shantanagoudhar, EC's counsel and senior advocate Ashok Desai said the present system exposed the voters to threats and victimisation as contesting parties came to know about the number of votes they got from a particular area.
He said cluster counting could not be introduced till the Centre amended the law and the EC had sent a recommendation to the government to change the law.
Desai told the bench that a few years ago, the then Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar had threatened the residents of Baramati village to cut off water supply if they did not cast their ballot in favour of his party.
But advocate Nalin Kohli, appearing for the Centre, said the government had decided against cluster voting.
"The team of ministers has come to the conclusion that revelation of booth-wise votes would perhaps be more beneficial and useful since it would facilitate the candidates and parties to find out the areas where they have shown better results and where they have not shown good results so as to work more for that area by bringing more development activities to improve their performance in future elections," he said.
"...intimidation/victimization of voters as apprehended may not occur on a large scale in this era of media activism.
It was observed (by the GoM) that if any such incident takes place then, in the present scenario of informed society, the same would be highlighted by electronic and print media as well as social media which would definitely affect adversely the parties or candidates performance in future elections," he said.
The bench, however, agreed with the submission of the EC and said the present counting system should be changed as people of a particular area may be targeted by parties and to remove fear psychosis among voters.
It, however, raised the question on how the court could direct the government to amend the law when the Centre was reluctant.
The bench said it would examine if it could invoke the principle of right to privacy attached to voting to direct the Centre to amend the law.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Punjab-based advocate Yogesh Gupta who contended that "the uniform way of declaration of result for the entire constituency as a whole would reduce cases fuelled by political vendetta".
The Commission told the SC on Friday that it was against booth-wise declaration of vote count in polls and asked the Centre to amend rules to introduce cluster counting to protect the right to privacy attached to voting.
But the Centre rejected the proposal saying the present system is more beneficial and that its Group of Ministers headed by the home minister, had rejected the proposal.
Appearing before a bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice M M Shantanagoudhar, EC's counsel and senior advocate Ashok Desai said the present system exposed the voters to threats and victimisation as contesting parties came to know about the number of votes they got from a particular area.
He said cluster counting could not be introduced till the Centre amended the law and the EC had sent a recommendation to the government to change the law.
Desai told the bench that a few years ago, the then Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar had threatened the residents of Baramati village to cut off water supply if they did not cast their ballot in favour of his party.
But advocate Nalin Kohli, appearing for the Centre, said the government had decided against cluster voting.
"The team of ministers has come to the conclusion that revelation of booth-wise votes would perhaps be more beneficial and useful since it would facilitate the candidates and parties to find out the areas where they have shown better results and where they have not shown good results so as to work more for that area by bringing more development activities to improve their performance in future elections," he said.
"...intimidation/victimization of voters as apprehended may not occur on a large scale in this era of media activism.
It was observed (by the GoM) that if any such incident takes place then, in the present scenario of informed society, the same would be highlighted by electronic and print media as well as social media which would definitely affect adversely the parties or candidates performance in future elections," he said.
The bench, however, agreed with the submission of the EC and said the present counting system should be changed as people of a particular area may be targeted by parties and to remove fear psychosis among voters.
It, however, raised the question on how the court could direct the government to amend the law when the Centre was reluctant.
The bench said it would examine if it could invoke the principle of right to privacy attached to voting to direct the Centre to amend the law.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Punjab-based advocate Yogesh Gupta who contended that "the uniform way of declaration of result for the entire constituency as a whole would reduce cases fuelled by political vendetta".
