NEW DELHI — Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday defended the
recent amendment to election rules restricting CCTV footage of polling booths
from public inspection, saying it is meant to protect voters' privacy and
prevent use of data for creating fake narratives.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar addresses a press
conference for the announcement of the schedule for the Delhi Assembly
elections, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (PTI Photo/Arun Sharma)
Based on Election Commission's recommendation, the
government had last month tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection
of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera footage of polling stations
to prevent misuse.
In his first remarks on tweak of Conduct of Election
Rules, 1961, Kumar said only sharing of CCTV footage from inside and outside
polling booths have been restricted.
Addressing a press conference here to announce the
schedule for Delhi Assembly polls, he said such data or footage was banned for
public inspection through EC's instructions in 2024.
He said certain other documents which are allowed under
Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules will continue to be available.
Some documents which are already restricted from sharing
are forms filled by poll officials about the name of the voter and the identity
shown by them before voting.
Kumar said rules were amended to "protect the
identity of the voters as well as their profiling". He said if the footage
is made public, the identity of those who voted and those who did not, would be
revealed and was violative of privacy norms.
If footage of 10.5 lakh polling stations where suppose
polling takes place for 10 hours is given out, it would mean data of one crore
hours. "A person will need 3,600 years to go through the recordings if
watched for eight hours daily," he said.
"Why does he want it? Let us ask this question from
the person who wants it," Kumar said.
He said the poll authority has examples to prove that the
data would be used for machine learning and using AI to create narratives.
The CEC said even fact checkers would not be able to find
out whether the AI-generated videos of polling stations are fake or genuine.
He said things which are to be restricted are yet to be
defined or prescribed in the rules.
The Union law ministry had amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the
Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of "papers" or
documents open to public inspection.
According to Rule 93, all "papers" related to
elections shall be open to public inspection. The amendment inserts "as
specified in these rules" after "papers".
The law ministry and EC officials separately explained
that a court case was the "trigger" behind the amendment.
While documents such as nomination forms, appointment of
election agents, results and election account statements are mentioned in the
Conduct of Election Rules, electronic documents such as CCTV camera footage,
webcasting footage and video recording of candidates during the Model Code of
Conduct period are not covered.
"CCTV coverage, webcasting of polling stations are
not carried out under Conduct of Election Rules but are the result of steps
taken by the EC to ensure a level playing field," a former EC official
explained.
An EC functionary said, "There have been instances
where such electronic records were sought, citing the rules. The amendment
ensures that only papers mentioned in the rules are available for public
inspection and any other document which has no reference in the rules is not
allowed for public inspection."
Candidates already have access to all documents and
papers, and nothing has been amended in the rules in this regard, the
functionary added.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in the recent Mahmoud
Pracha vs EC case, had directed sharing all documents related to the Haryana
Assembly elections, including treating CCTV camera footage as permissible under
Rule 93(2), with Pracha.
The rule mentioned election papers. The election papers
and documents do not specifically refer to electronic records, the EC
functionaries said.
In order to remove this ambiguity, the rule has been
amended to safeguard the misuse of CCTV camera footage of polling stations,
another EC official explained.
A law ministry official said all election papers and
documents were otherwise available for public inspection.
