Supreme Court Takes 'Aa Bail Mujhe Maar' Jibe At Election Commission's Real-Time Voter Turnout App, Know Why?

The apex court made the remarks referring to the Election Commission's alleged reluctance in releasing full voter turnout data including absoulute numbers promptly.

The Supreme Court on Friday used the Hindi proverb "aa bail mujhe maar" to take a jibe at Election Commission over its mobile application that allows users to access real-time voter turnout data. The remark was made by a vacation bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma while hearing a plea requesting EC to upload booth-wise voter turnout data in 'numbers' on its website during the Lok Sabha polls.

Refering to a past hearing on a plea by a NGO seeking SC's direction to return to the old practice of using paper ballots in elections, Justice Datta said "I specifically asked him (EC counsel Maninder Singh) about the voter turnout app and whether there was a statutory requirement to upload data in real time." To which he (Singh) responded that there are no such statutory requirements and that the ECI is doing so for fairness and transparency."

"That day, I didn't say anything in open court, but today, I'm willing to. "It's like 'Aa Bail Mujhe Maar' (to invite trouble)," he said, referring to the Election Commission's alleged reluctance to release full voter turnout data as soon as possible.  Justice Datta, along with Justice Sanjiv Khanna on April 26 sat on the bench that rejected the NGO's request to review ballot papers.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who represented the NGO, stated that people have complete faith in the Election Commission, which should not be misinterpreted. "People are entitled to know. Why should we be excluded if we can provide information that will improve the election process? ECI is capable of providing exact Form 17C figures. It can be updated by utilising cutting-edge technology. Estimated figures are causing some anxiety," he explained.

(With inputs from PTI)