SC seeks Election Commission’s explanation for decision to raise number of voters per polling booth

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission to explain its decision to increase the maximum number of voters per polling station from 1,200 to 1,500, saying that it does not want electors to be inconvenienced by the move, reported Live Law.

The bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was hearing a public interest litigation challenging the poll panel’s communications issued in August allowing the maximum number of voters per polling station to be increased.

In the previous hearing, advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the move would create challenges for electors and amounted to an act of voter disenfranchisement, Live Law reported.

The Election Commission’s decision could lead to the exclusion of underprivileged groups from the polling process as they may not be able to carve out the spare disproportionate time from their daily schedules to cast their ballots, Singhvi had argued.

Singhvi also cited newspaper reports as evidence that voters could be discouraged from casting their vote if queues at polling stations were inordinately long.

The petitioner argued that the Commission’s decision was not supported by data.

There has been no Census since 2011 and therefore, there is no fresh data to guide the panel’s decision, the petitioner pointed out. “By increasing this limit [voters per polling...

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