BMC polls: No HC ruling on negative voting plea

The Bombay high court on Tuesday refused to grant any interim relief to a petitioner seeking directions to the state election commission to ensure secrecy of negative votes cast by voters.

A division bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice  NM Jamdar clubbed the petitions filed separately by Aparna Bedekar and husband Mahesh.

As per the rule, the voter who does not want to vote for any of the candidates has to provide his personal details to the authorities along with his signature. The petition alleged that the information can be misused by political touts.

The State Election Commission told the court that the petitioner’s husband had raised the same issue in a PIL.