The Union government on Friday amended the Conduct of Election Rules to the effect that not all election-related documents can be accessed by the public.

The earlier Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.

The amended version of the rule says: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”

With this change notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission, not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be inspected by the public.

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The courts will also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers to the public.

This came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on December 9, directed the Election Commission to provide videography, security camera footage and copies of documents related to votes polled at a polling station during the recent Haryana Assembly elections to advocate Mehmood Pracha.

An official of the Election Commission told Scroll: “We started receiving all kinds of applications, some even through RTI [Right to Information] asking for random documents and even CCTV footage of polling booths… We were planning to regulate public inspection of election related papers for some time… Now after this order from the HC, the Rules have been amended and notified.”

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Reacting to the development, Pracha told Scroll: “To save democracy and Babasaheb’s constitution, we are being forced to play on an uneven ground. Manuwadi forces have throughout history used immoral and unfair methods to suppress the Ambedkarwadis including by means changing the goal post whenever they lose but we have our own methods including our legal strategies to defeat these undemocratic and fascist forces”.

The Election Commission had opposed the plea by Pracha in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It had argued that Pracha was not a candidate in the Assembly polls, which took place in October, and therefore he cannot ask for the documents related to the election.

The High Court had directed the poll body to provide the necessary documents, including Form 17C both Part 1 and Part 2, within six weeks while accepting the argument by Pracha that the only distinction cast between a candidate and any other person is that while the documents have to be supplied free of cost to a candidate who contested the election, the documents are to be supplied to any other person subject to payment of the fee as may be so prescribed.

‘Why is EC afraid of transparency?’: Opposition

The Congress on Saturday said the amendment to the Conduct of Election Rules was a “vindication” of its repeated assertions regarding the “rapidly eroding integrity” in recent times of the electoral process managed by the Election Commission.

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“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and information will restore faith in the process – a reasoning the Punjab and Haryana High Court agreed with when it directed the ECI [Election Commission] to share all information that it is legally required to do so with the public,” Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said on social media.

“Yet the ECI, instead of complying with the judgment, rushes to amend the law to curtail the list of what can be shared,” Ramesh added. “Why is the ECI so afraid of transparency?”

The Rajya Sabha MP added that the move would be challenged legally.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on social media said that the changes to the rules meant that something was “very wrong”.

Former Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar asked what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government was hiding.

“Why did it suddenly change Election Rules to STOP public from asking & examining Election records and data?” he asked on social media. “So frightened is Modi + Election Commission combine – that, as soon as High Court intervened – they took away rights.”