EC Holds Legal Framework Meet

Chief electoral officers from all 36 states and the legal counsels of the Election Commission of India from the Supreme Court and 28 high courts on Saturday participated in the concluding session of the two-day conference and deliberated on ways to improve the panel's litigation strategy and procedural transparency.

- Abhishek Angad

NEW DELHI:

With the discussion focusing on the theme "first line of defence: challenge maintainability", the Commission has decided to now contest election-related petitions on the grounds of maintainability before engaging on merits.

"Election-related litigations are increasingly politically motivated. The first step should be to examine whether the petitioner has exhausted all statutory remedies and whether the Commission is legally obligated to provide the information sought," a person who attended the conference said on condition of anonymity.

One of the examples cited during this discussion was the controversy over Form 17C, which documents voter turnout at the polling booth level.