Centre changes election conduct rules days after HC tells EC to provide poll documents to petitioner
With this change, not all election-related papers can be inspected by the public.
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The Union government on Friday amended the Conduct of Election Rules to the effect that not all election-related documents can be accessed by the public.
The earlier Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.
The amended version of the rules says: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”
With this change notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission, not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be inspected by the public.
The courts will also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers to the public.
This came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on December 9, directed the Election Commission to provide videography, security camera footage and copies of documents related to votes polled at a polling station during the recent Haryana Assembly elections to advocate Mehmood Pracha.
An official of the Election Commission told Scroll: “We started receiving all kinds of applications, some even through RTI [Right to Information] asking for random documents and even CCTV footage...
