The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Central government and the Election Commission of India on a plea by Indian National Congress Secretary Jairam Ramesh challenging amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961, that bar the public inspection of electronic documents, including CCTV footage, webcasting recordings and video footage of candidates.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar asked the Central government and the oil panel to file their reply before the week commencing on March 17.

Advertisement

Questioned the reasoning behind the amendment, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “One of the reasons given in the press is, we have taken away CCTV, video because identity of voter is revealed.”

The Central government recently amended the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, based on the recommendations of the poll pane precluding the public from accessing the electronically stored information relating to the conduct of election.

By the amendment under challenge, the Central government amended Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to limit public access to certain electronic documents with an ostensible 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” relating to elections shall be open to public inspection. However, the amendment inserts “as specified in these rules” after “papers”