Supreme Court seeks Centre, ECI response on Jairam Ramesh’s plea against Election Rules tweaking

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to respond to senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s petition against the recent amendments to the Election Rules, 1961, that barred public access to CCTV footage.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar issued notices after senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted on behalf of Ramesh that the “very cleverly” made amendments barred access to CCTV footage on the ground that it would reveal the identity of the voter. Voting choices were never revealed and the CCTV footage couldn’t reveal votes, they submitted.

The bench posted the matter for hearing in the week commencing March 17.

As the Government tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV cameras, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse, Ramesh challenged it before the top court, alleging that it eroded integrity of the electoral process.

On the recommendation of ECI, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice last month amended Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of “papers” or documents open to public inspection.

Rule 93 says that all “papers” related to elections shall be open to public inspection. However, instead of the expression “papers”, the amendment says “papers as specified in these rules”.

A Law Ministry notification last month changed Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Earlier, the said rule stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”. However, it has now been changed to read: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had recently directed ECI to provide copies of documents related to the Haryana Assembly election to an advocate who had filed a petition seeking the videography, CCTV camera footage, and copies of Forms 17-C Parts I and II related to the conduct of elections.

“If there was ever a vindication of our assertions regarding the rapidly eroding integrity of the electoral process managed by ECI in recent times, this is it. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and information will restore faith in the process — a reasoning the Punjab and Haryana High Court agreed with when it directed ECI to share all information that it is legally required to do so with the public,” Ramesh had said.

“Yet ECI, instead of complying with the judgment, rushes to amend the law to curtail the list of what can be shared. Why is ECI so afraid of transparency? This move of ECI will be challenged legally right away,” he had written on X.