What Is Form 17C And The Controversy Regarding ECI?
In the past few weeks, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been under fire for not releasing important information regarding the number of votes polled and/or rejected at every booth, amid growing allegations of the poll body being ‘biased’ against the ruling party, uncertainty with EVMs, and fears of potential voter fraud.
Major political party leaders such as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Pawan Khera, Trinamool Congress leader and Krishnanagar candidate Mahua Moitra, as well as the special interest groups Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause, have criticised the ECI for failing to publish the data.
Replying to an application seeking to upload copies of Form 17C (Records of the number of votes polled in a booth), the EC told the Supreme Court yesterday that uploading Form 17C on the website can lead to “mischief and vitiation of entire electoral space.”
What Is Form 17C And Why Do We Need It?
The Form 17C includes data about the electors assigned to each booth, the number of registered voters in the area, the number of voters who decided not to vote, voters who were not allowed to vote, the numbers of votes recorded in the EVMs, if the number of votes recorded is equal to the number of voters minus those who did not vote, data about ballot paper (received, issued, and not used/returned), and data about paper seals (numbers issued/used/returned).
All the above data is filled in by the polling officer and checked by the Presiding Officer at their respective booths.
While the first form contains the above data, the second part includes the name of the candidate, votes received, and if the total number of votes counted from that booth is the same as the total number of votes polled. This data is filled in by the supervisor of the counting station, and each candidate or their representative is required to sign the form, which is then run through by the Returning Officer.
The data in Form 17C can be used to challenge an election result in a court of law, which is why political leaders and activists have been demanding that the data be published to ensure free and fair elections.
Amid reports of voter fraud emerging in several constituencies in each phase of the Lok Sabha elections, delays in publishing the total voter turnout in the first phase (April 19) and the second phase (April 26), and discrepancies in the numbers submitted on the day of polling and after, the importance of Form 17C has been growing.
The ADR Petition And The EC”s Response
Regarding the same, the ADR filed a petition alleging an unreasonable delay in revealing the voter turnout for the first four phases. The petition claimed that there was an increase of five to six percent between the preliminary data and the final data. The ADR sought the top court’s help to get the scanned copies of Form 17C to be published on the official website of the EC after voting concluded.
Following the Supreme Court’s order to the poll body to respond, the EC said that the court”s release of the data could create “widespread discomfort” and mistrust in the election process, with the possibility of the images being morphed and distributed across. The Commission also stated that the original Form 17C was only available in the strong room, along with a copy with the polling agents whose signature it bears.
The EC also argued that based on the prescribed rules, the poll body cannot share the Form 17C data with any other body except the polling officials.
The EC has been under fire for its alleged inaction against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders engaging in several instances of alleged voter fraud and malpractice. Reacting to the same, the poll body sought the dismissal of the petition, claiming that “vested interests” were raising false allegations to discredit the authority and its work.
