Election laws: Election Manual 2016 – Chapter XI – Clause
11.2.2.2 – Putting draft roll on website – Petitioner seeking publishing/providing of soft copies of draft electoral rolls to political parties in text format-searchable PDF format – Held: Clause
11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual uses the expression ‘text mode’ – Draft electoral roll in the text mode, supplied to the petitioner fulfills the requirement contained in the Election Manual – Clause nowhere says that the draft electoral roll has to be put up on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website in a ‘searchable PDF’ – Therefore, the petitioner cannot claim, as a right, that the draft electoral roll should be placed on the website in a ‘searchable mode’ – Furthermore, since Clause
11.2.2.2 does not entitle the petitioner to get the draft electoral roll in the text mode which is searchable as well viz. in ‘full text search’ form, it is for the ECI to decide about the format in which the draft electoral roll is to be published – Issues of privacy of voters are involved and the move of ECI is aimed at prevention of voter profiling and data mining.
Dismissing the writ petitions, the Court
HELD: 1.1 The ECI claims that it took all necessary steps in this behalf. ECI gave a detailed reply to the petitioner and his political party, that the complaint of the petitioner and the political party to which he is affiliated regarding duplication/multiplication of voters had been rectified. Furthermore, ECI also supplied a copy of the rectified draft electoral roll to the petitioner, and the political party to which he is affiliated, on July 31, 2018. It was also stated at the bar that ECI has also now published the Final Electoral Roll on September 27, 2018 and supplied a copy of the same to the petitioner (and his political party) wherein all such defects/discrepancies find no place as they have already been rectified earlier. The ECI explained that revision and updation of the electoral roll is a continuous process, which the ECI is diligently pursuing continuously. [Para 17, 18] [852-A-B, C-D]
1.2 Clause 11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual places an obligation on the ECI to put the draft roll on its website in PDF format. The purpose is to bring it in public domain so that each voter is able to access the same and find out whether his/her name is correctly shown and in case of any error, the said voter is in a position to get the same rectified. Likewise, in case a particular voter is missing from the list, that individual would be in a position to take up the matter with the ECI for inclusion of his/her name. A copy thereof is also given to the political parties as well, because these political parties have equal interest in ensuring that the aforesaid mistakes are removed. They can additionally check as to whether there are duplicate or fake voters also in the list and seek correction thereof. However, the second part of the said clause mentions that draft roll would be put in a ‘text mode’. It also states that no photograph would appear against the electors’ details. [Para 19]. [852-E-F; 853-A-B]
1.3 The counsel for ECI submitted that the use of the phrase ‘text mode’ in Clause 11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual only means that the draft electoral roll put up on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website shall only contain ‘text’ of the elector’s details and not his/her ‘photographs/pictures/pictorial content’; that every PDF document, whether it is a searchable or non-searchable/Image PDF and which contains any text content in a ‘Text Mode’ is PDF in that sense; that there is nothing called a ‘Text Mode’ format of a PDF document; and that a simple ‘Google search’ in that regard would also clearly and conclusively establish the same. There is force in the submission of the ECI. Clause 11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual uses the expression ‘text mode’. The draft electoral roll in that mode, i.e. text mode, has been supplied to the petitioner. The clause nowhere says that the draft electoral roll has to be put up on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website in a ‘searchable PDF’. Therefore, the petitioner cannot claim, as a right, that the draft electoral roll should be placed on the website in a ‘searchable mode’. It has only to be in ‘text mode’ and it is so provided. The document from Wikipedia relied upon by the petitioner relates to ‘full text search’ and not ‘text mode’. Obviously, when the said document explains how ‘full text search’ is to be undertaken, the explanation would be that it is a search engine which examines all of the words in every stored documents and would provide full text searching techniques as well. However, the absence of the words ‘search’ in Clause 11.2.2.2 would make all the difference. [Paras 20-22] [854-A-E]
1.4 It is rightly explained by the ECI that PDF documents are primarily of two types/formats, namely “Image-only” or Scanned PDFs-when scanning hard copy documents on MFPs and office scanners, or when converting a camera image, jpg, tiff or screenshot into a PDF, the content is “locked” in a snapshotlike image, without an underlying text layer. Such image-only PDF documents contain just the scanned/photographed images of pages. Image-only PDF files are not searchable, and their text usually cannot be selected, searched or copied; and searchable PDFs-In Searchable PDFs, a text layer is added to the image layer, usually placed underneath. Such PDF files are almost indistinguishable from the original documents and are fully searchable. Text in searchable PDF documents can be selected, searched and copied. [Para 23] [854-F-H]
1.5 Once it is found that Clause 11.2.2.2 does not entitle the petitioner to get the draft electoral roll in the text mode which is searchable as well viz. in ‘full text search’ form, it is for the ECI to decide about the format in which the draft electoral roll is to be published. ECI has given the reasons for not adhering to the request of the petitioner in providing draft electoral roll in searchable PDF format. According to it, issues of privacy of voters are involved and the move of ECI is aimed at prevention of voter profiling and data mining. According to ECI, ensuring free and fair elections, to which it is committed, also necessitates that ECI is duty bound to protect the privacy and profiling of electors. Therefore, it is duty bound to take all precautionary measures. However, it is not necessary to go into this aspect. [Para 24] [855-A-C]
1.6 On reading and interpreting Clause 11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual in the aforesaid manner, the decision taken by the ECI which is contained in its Instructions dated January 4, 2018 becomes relevant. In those Instructions, ECI has directed its field level functionaries to put only the ‘Image PDF’ of electoral roll in the public domain. The format in which the draft electoral roll is supplied to the petitioner fulfills the requirement contained in the Election Manual. If the petitioner so wants, he can always convert it into searchable mode which, of course, would require him to put his own efforts. [Para 25] [855-C-E]
Special Reference No. 1 of 2002 (2002) 8 SCC
237 : [2002] 3 Suppl. SCR 366; K.S. Puttaswamy and Another v. Union of India and Others (2017) 10 SCC 1; Prakash Joshi v. Election Commission of India October 30, 2017 in W.P. (C) No. 983 of 2017 –
referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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