Supreme Court seeks EC response on plea against ward-wise vote count

The Supreme Court today sought the response of the Election Commission (EC) on a plea seeking stoppage of ward-wise counting of votes on the ground that the declaration of result of every polling booth strikes at the root of right to privacy attached to voting.

A bench comprising justices Dipak Mishra and N V Ramana issued notice to the EC and sought its reply by May 21 on a proposal that the result of every parliamentary constituency be declared as a whole and not through ward-wise counting of votes of every electronic voting machine (EVM). The petition said, "The result of every EVM must not be disclosed."

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Punjab-based advocate Yogesh Gupta submitting that "the uniform way of declaration of result for the entire constituency as a whole would bring balanced growth and balanced funding and it would also reduce cases fuelled by political vendetta, ill will and hatred".

The petition, which has come four days ahead of the counting of votes for ongoing Lok Sabha election, said the result is again going to be declared by announcing the outcome of every EVM which would lead to adverse impact on the voters as the political parties would harass the electorate in areas where it has not received the votes.