Court refuses to entertain plea seeking video footage of Maharashtra Assembly polls

The Bombay High Court on Monday observed that a plea filed by a Delhi-based lawyer seeking the CCTV footage of polling booths from the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election, was of public interest as the petitioner himself was not affected by the issue and thus refused to hear it but gave liberty to convert the petition into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

The bench of Justices GS Kulkarni and Arif Doctor was hearing a petition filed by advocate Mehmood Pracha, seeking the entire videography, CCTV footage, and copies of Forms 17-C Part I and II related to the conduct of the 2024 General Legislative Assembly Elections in Maharashtra.

In the interim, the plea requested that the Election Commission of India (ECI) be directed to preserve the CCTV footage and video recordings related to the election, which are currently in its custody.

"How are you personally aggrieved? If you are not personally aggrieved, there is no personal injury, then it should have been filed as a Public Interest Litigation. You are not even a voter, you are a resident of Delhi," the court asked the petitioner.

The petitioner pointed out that in a similar case involving the election material related to the Haryana Assembly elections, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the respondents in the matter to supply the material within a period of six weeks and was not further challenged by the authorities concerned.

However, the bench only pressed the petitioner on how the issue concerned the petitioner, since he was a resident of Delhi. The bench had recently dismissed a similar petition argued by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader, Advocate Prakash Ambedkar, on the issue of maintainability of the plea.

The bench permitted Pracha to convert his writ petition into a PIL and then it to be listed before another appropriate bench.

Pracha's plea stated that after the declaration of the results, the election material — including the videography — is kept in the custody of the District Election Officer. Furthermore, the Handbook for Returning Officers, 2023 provides that such videography must be supplied upon application, either by a candidate or any other person.

Following the declaration of the results of the 2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections, the petitioner wrote to the respondents seeking copies of the entire videography recorded during the election process, as well as Form 17-C Parts I and II for all constituencies.

"However, despite the mandatory provisions of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, the respondents have failed in their duty to provide the material requested by the petitioner," the plea states. Pracha submitted that he had emailed the authorities on December 11, 2024, but received no response or material.

The opposition parties have been raising issues with regard to heavy polling that took place in the Maharashtra Assembly election after 6 pm when voting ends. It is claimed that over 76 lakh votes, amounting to 6.8% of the total votes, were cast post-deadline without proper records by the ECI.

The Election Commission of India has said that those people who were inside the polling booths are permitted to vote as per rules and the allegations levelled were not true.

- Ends