The Supreme Court on Friday, May 24, postponed a decision on an application that requested the Election Commission of India to publish the booth-wise absolute voter turnout numbers and upload the Form 17C records of votes polled on its website.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma stated that the Court must adopt a "hands-off approach" concerning the election process, emphasizing that there should be no interruptions in the process.

Additionally, the bench noted that the requests made in the interim application mirror those in the main writ petition filed in 2019. It clarified that seeking primary relief in an interim application is not appropriate and recommended that the application be addressed concurrently with the main petition.

"In between elections, hands-off approach has to be taken. Let the application be heard along with the main writ petition. We cannot interrupt the process. Let us have some trust in the authority," Justice Datta orally said.

After hearing arguments for over one hour, the bench dictated the following order :

"The arguments on the interim application were heard. Prima facie we are not inclined to grant any relief on the interim application at this stage in view of similarities of the prayer (a) of the interim application with prayer (b) of the writ petition out of which the Interim Application arises. The grant of relief in the interim application would amount to the grant of final relief. Relist the application together with the writ petitions before the appropriate bench after vacations. We have not expressed any opinion on merits except he prima facie view indicated above."

The interim application was lodged by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) within the context of a writ petition it filed back in 2019. Additionally, a separate writ petition filed in 2019 by TMC leader Mahua Moitra, alleging inconsistencies in the voter turnout data from the 2019 General Elections, is also scheduled for today's proceedings.

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Mitra. Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave appeared for ADR and Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared for the ECI.

On May 17, a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala, Manoj Misra instructed for the matter to be listed on May 24 before a vacation bench. They specifically called upon the Election Commission of India to submit its response explaining why the Form 17C data couldn't be disclosed.