SC notice on petition against change in election conduct rules, opposition to ban on viewing CCTV footage

Election Transparency: The Supreme Court has issued a notice on the petition of Congress leader Jairam Ramesh against the changes in election conduct rules. The petition has opposed the rule to prevent public inspection of electronic documents related to elections. The court has asked the Central Government and the Election Commission to respond to this petition. The next hearing of the case will be on March 17.

Jairam Ramesh’s petition states that a rule has been made to prevent public inspection of electronic documents related to the election process without discussion with political parties. These include electronic documents like CCTV and webcasting footage, video recordings of candidates. This is a change that puts a question mark on the fairness and transparency of the election process.

Changes in the system of document inspection due to new rules

On December 20, on the recommendation of the Election Commission, the Union Law Ministry had changed Rule 93(2)(A) of the Election Conduct Rules 1961. This rule provides for public inspection of documents. After the change, the documents available for inspection have become limited. Electronic documents can be inspected only by court order.

The Election Commission had recommended changes in the rules on the basis of secrecy of voting. It also mentioned the possibility of misuse of CCTV footage inside the polling station by tampering with photographs and videos through artificial intelligence. Due to this, this change has been made in the rules to prevent misuse of CCTV and other video footage.

Bench issues notice on Jairam Ramesh’s petition

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared on behalf of petitioner Jairam Ramesh before the bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. Singhvi said that voter privacy has also been cited as a reason behind the change in rules, but CCTV footage does not reveal who the voter has voted for. In such a situation, the argument that privacy is affected is beyond comprehension. After a brief hearing, the bench issued notice on the petition.

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