Punjab Congress president Warring moves HC seeking videography of Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti vote counting
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking mandatory videography of the counting of votes for the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, following polling on December 14. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by Warring on Monday through advocate Nikhil Ghai. It states that he absence of mandatory videography during counting renders the process opaque and vulnerable to arbitrariness and manipulation, potentially undermining public confidence in grassroots democracy. It invokes constitutional provisions, including Articles 14 (equality), 21 (right to life and liberty), and 243K (powers of State Election Commission), asserting that free and fair elections are part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The court is scheduled to hear the public interest litigation on Tuesday. Ghai said on the petitioners behalf that the counting of votes was an integral and decisive stage of the election process, continuing until the declaration of results. 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. Despite this being a settled legal position, the counting of votes in Zila Parishad elections was conducted without mandatory videography, leaving no objective or verifiable record of the most sensitive phase of the elections, the plea said. The petition 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. It also sought the framing of uniform and binding guidelines governing videography, storage, access and accountability. Earlier, the high court had directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to ensure the non-partisan conduct of police personnel and to inquire into allegations of misconduct by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress, as both parties had claimed that their candidates and workers were allegedly intimidated and attacked to prevent them from participating in the poll process. There was a low voter turnout of 48 per cent in these polls, compared to 58.1 per cent in 2018.
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