Govt amends poll rules to restrict public inspection of electronic records
EC functionaries said the misuse of CCTV camera footage from inside polling booths could compromise voter secrecy.
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Law ministry and EC officials separately explained that a court case was the "trigger" behind the amendment. (File Photo)The Union Government Friday amended the Conduct of Election Rules to limit public inspection of election papers to only those documents specified in the provisions.
This amendment, sources in the government told The Sunday Express, would effectively clarify that electronic footage of the polling process is not covered within the definition of election papers and, hence, not open to public scrutiny.
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 rule now states: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”
The Congress reacted sharply to the amendment. AICC general secretary (organisation) and MP K C Venugopal demanded reversal of the notification and said the party would explore legal options to challenge it.
What the tweak does
Now, only election papers mentioned under different provisions of the Conduct of Election Rules (like nomination papers) would be open to public scrutiny. Papers available to candidates, like Form 17C, continue to remain available to them. The tweak would effectively exclude CCTV footage or any electronic record of the poll process from public inspection.
In a post on X, Venugopal said, “Such a proclamation by the Centre where the government will have the power to ‘prescribe as per rules’ what election related details are permitted or prohibited shows they have a lot to hide, and want to keep the public in the dark about how the electoral process is functioning.”
Incidentally, the change, which Law Ministry sources said was made in consultation with the Election Commission of India, came within two weeks of a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that directed the poll watchdog to provide election-related documents, including videography, CCTV footage, and copies of Form 17-C, pertaining to the recent Haryana Assembly elections to advocate Mehmood Pracha.
In court, the ECI counsel had questioned Pracha’s locus and opposed his request given that he was neither a resident of Haryana nor a candidate in any Assembly constituency. Government and ECI officials acknowledged that the recent High Court direction was the motivation behind the amendment.
However, the tweak has been justified on the ground that public inspection of election papers does not include videography and CCTV footage.
“Since electronic records are not mentioned anywhere in the Rules, it was understood that they are not open to scrutiny. However, the Commission has been increasingly receiving requests for access to video footage citing Rule 93 (2) of the Conduct of Election Rules. In order to remove this ambiguity for the Commission officials and those making such requests, the amendment was made,” said an official who did not wish to be identified.
Moreover, providing CCTV footage, the official said, would amount to violation of secrecy of vote and open it up to potential misuse using artificial intelligence.
“The rule has been amended to safeguard misuse of CCTV footage inside the polling station. Sharing of CCTV footage may have serious repercussions specially in sensitive areas like J&K, Naxal-affected regions, etc where secrecy is important. Lives of the voters may also be at risk. All election papers and documents are otherwise available for public inspection. Candidates in any case have access to all documents, papers and records. Even Mr Pracha was entitled to all the documents and records from his constituency when he contested as a candidate in Lok Sabha elections 2024,” the official said.
Now that the enabling provision has been added to the rules, the EC is likely to prescribe the same in guidelines, saying that CCTV footage is not a part of election papers, a top EC source said. There had been no change in the papers and CCTV footage that candidates have access to, the source said. However, to prevent misuse of video footage, including deepfakes made during a recent election, it was decided to clarify that CCTV footage would not be shared with the public, the source said.
Reacting to the development, Pracha said: “They are changing the goalposts after they have lost the game. The government has nothing to do with this, unless the EC sent a request to them, which they have not put out. They have not followed the procedure before amending the rules, they have not taken the opinion of stakeholders.”
He said the EC’s arguments that he was not a candidate in Haryana and that his request was driven by malicious intent had already been defeated in the High Court.
The change, he said, would not have retrospective effect and he intended to take further legal action to obtain the footage for Haryana.
Pracha also said he was in the process of moving all High Courts to get video footage pertaining to the Lok Sabha elections.
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