Advocate Mehmood Pracha, who contested the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur parliamentary seat, has approached the Supreme Court, alleging that the Returning Officer has failed to provide him with copies of the Form 17-C record of votes polled in the constituency.
Pracha has petitioned the Supreme Court to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to promptly publish voter turnout data following the elections. He has filed an intervention application in an ongoing case by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on a similar issue.
In his application, Pracha stated that he had requested the Returning Officer for machine-wise data of total votes cast in the polling stations, recorded in Form 17-C by the Presiding Officers, after the conclusion of voting in Rampur on April 30. However, on May 9, the Returning Officer informed him that the Form 17-C copies were provided to polling agents present at the polling stations and could not be provided now as they are sealed.
In response to ADR’s application, the Supreme Court had directed the ECI on May 17 to submit its response regarding an application seeking immediate uploading of accounts of votes recorded at all polling stations after the close of polling in each phase of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha election. During the hearing, the bench questioned the ECI about the difficulty in uploading copies of Form 17-C on their website.
ADR argued that the ECI’s delay in publishing the final voter turnout data raised concerns among voters, as there was a significant difference between the final data and the initial figures.