punjab-cong-chief-moves-hc-for-videography-of-vote-counting

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president and Lok Sabha MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday, seeking compulsory videography of the entire vote-counting process for the zila parishad and panchayat block samiti elections scheduled on December 17.

 

Filing a public interest litigation, Warring, through counsel Nikhil Ghai, submitted that the PIL was filed “in the interest of safeguarding the purity, transparency and credibility of the electoral process in elections to zila parishads in the State of Punjab”.

 

Ghai added on the petitioner’s behalf that the counting of votes was an integral and decisive stage of the election process, continuing until declaration of results. Despite this being the settled legal position, the counting of votes in zila parishad elections was conducted without mandatory videography, “leaving no verifiable record of the most sensitive phase of elections”.

 

The petitioner contended that the absence of videography rendered the process opaque and vulnerable to arbitrariness and allegations of manipulation, thereby eroding public confidence in democratic institutions. Relying on constitutional principles, the petitioner maintained that free and fair elections formed part of the basic structure of the Constitution and a lack of transparency at the counting stage violated Articles 14, 21 and 243K of the Constitution.

 

It was argued that videography of the counting was a minimal, reasonable and constitutionally permissible safeguard, which neither interfered with the electoral process nor breached the secrecy of the ballot, but instead enhanced accountability, deterred malpractice and reduced post-election disputes.

 

Clarifying that no election result was being challenged, the petitioner sought preventive institutional safeguards, including directions to mandate videography of the entire counting process, secure preservation of videographic records for a prescribed period and their availability for judicial or statutory scrutiny.

 

The plea also sought the framing of uniform and binding guidelines governing videography, storage, access and accountability. The petition will next come up for hearing on Tuesday.

 

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