Plea moved in Andhra HC against eWatch app

VIJAYAWADA: A petition was filed in the High Court on Wednesday challenging the State Election Commission’s decision to use a ‘private mobile application’, instead of those developed by the government, for the panchayat polls.K Sudhakar, a lawyer from Prakasam district, filed the petition appealing to the court to direct the SEC to use the apps developed by the Election Commission or the state government (such as C-Vigil or Nigha), and not ‘eWatch’. The petitioner’s counsel, Jayarami Reddy, prayed to the court to take up the petition for immediate hearing.The petitioner maintained that the actions of SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar with respect to the conduct of elections, are biased and controversial. 

“Though the elections are supposed to be apolitical, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had released his party’s manifesto and asked the electorate to vote in favour of the party-supported candidates. The SEC, however, did not take any punitive action against this violation, and instead of Naidu a notice was served on the party general secretary,” the petitioner said. Further, the petitioner said the SEC did not take any action against TDP AP president K Atchannaidu who had intimidated contesting candidates. The petitioner urged the court to ask the SEC not to use the private app that was developed with “much secrecy and  is being used in violation of the rules and regulations”. 

“The SEC is using a private app even when the existing C-Vigil app can be used for webcasting and other poll-related necessities.”Noting that the Centre introduced National Cyber Security policy in 2013, the petitioner said, “In accordance with the national policy, the state government in 2017 brought the AP Cyber Security Policy, and the AP Technological Services Limited was entrusted the task of preventing data hacking and theft.” Further, it was also maintained that though information related to the app was sought through RTI, the SEC has not responded so far. The bench of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice Praveen Kumar said it would hear the petition on Thursday.