Raja Warring moves Punjab HC for videography of vote counting in Zila Parishad, Block Samiti polls

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president and Lok Sabha MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking compulsory videography of the entire vote-counting process for the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Block Samiti elections scheduled to be held across Punjab on December 17.

In a public interest litigation, Warring, through counsel Nikhil Ghai, submitted that the public interest litigation was filed “in the interest of safeguarding the purity, transparency, and credibility of the electoral process in elections to Zila Parishads in the State of Punjab”.

Ghai added on the petitioner’s behalf that the counting of votes was an integral and decisive stage of the election process, continuing until result declarations.

Despite this being the settled legal position, the counting of votes in Zila Parishad elections was conducted without mandatory videography, “leaving no objective or verifiable record of the most sensitive phase of elections”.

The petitioner contended that the absence of videography rendered the process opaque and vulnerable to arbitrariness and allegations of manipulation, thereby eroding public confidence in democratic institutions.

Relying on constitutional principles, the petitioner maintained that free and fair elections formed part of the basic structure of the Constitution, and a lack of transparency at the counting stage violated Articles 14, 21 and 243K.

It was argued that videography of the counting was a minimal, reasonable, and constitutionally permissible safeguard, which neither interfered with the electoral process nor breached the secrecy of the ballot, but instead enhanced accountability, deterred malpractice, and reduced post-election disputes.

Clarifying that no election result was being challenged, the petitioner sought preventive institutional safeguards, including directions to mandate videography of the entire counting process, secure preservation of videographic records for a prescribed period, and their availability for judicial or statutory scrutiny.

The plea also sought the framing of uniform and binding guidelines governing videography, storage, access, and accountability. The petition will come up for hearing on Tuesday.