Election rules row: SC seeks govt, poll panel reply on Jairam Ramesh's plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Centre and the poll panel on Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh's plea against the recent amendments, including no public access to CCTV, to the 1961 election rules.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar took note of the submissions of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Ramesh, and issued notices on the plea.

The bench said it would hear the plea in the week commencing March 17.

Singhvi said amendments to the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules were made "very cleverly" and barred any access to CCTV footage claiming it would reveal the identity of the voter.

He said voting choices were never revealed and the CCTV footage couldn't reveal votes.

The senior lawyer urged the bench to ask the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Centre to file their responses before the next date of hearing else they would come and say "reply is needed to be filed" on that day.

"They will file the responses," the CJI said.

The Congress leader filed the writ petition in December challenging the recent amendments to the 1961 rules and expressed "hope" that the apex court would help "restore the fast eroding" integrity of the electoral process.

The government has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage besides video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse.

Ramesh had said, "The integrity of the electoral process is fast eroding. Hopefully the Supreme Court will help restore it."  "A writ has just been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961," he wrote on X earlier.

Ramesh said the ECI, a constitutional body charged with the conduct of free and fair elections, couldn't be allowed to unilaterally, and without public consultation, amend such a vital law in such a brazen manner.

"This is especially true when that amendment does away with public access to essential information that makes the electoral process more transparent and accountable," he said.

Based on ECI's recommendation, the Union law ministry in December amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 rules, to restrict the type of "papers" or documents open to public inspection.