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The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and poll panel on a plea of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Jairam Ramesh challenging amendments made to the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961.
The amendment prevents public inspection of electronic documents, including CCTV footage, webcasting recordings and video footage of candidates. A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar sought responses from the Central government and Election Commission of India and asked them to file it before the week commencing on March 17. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress leader, questioned the reasoning behind the amendment saying, "One of the reasons given in the press is, we have taken away CCTV, video because the identity of the voter is revealed." The Centre recently amended the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, based on the recommendations of the poll panel. The Central government amended Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to limit public access to certain electronic documents with the purported aim of preventing the misuse of electronic election records. It amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of "papers" or documents open to public inspection. According to Rule 93, which has now been amended, all "papers" related to elections shall be open to public inspection. However, the amendment inserts "as specified in these rules" after "papers". (ANI)
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