New Delhi, May 21 (IANS): The Election Commission Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it was in favour of cluster counting of votes instead of the existing practice of ward-wise counting.
The poll panel told the bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice N.V. Ramana that it has written to the government to amend Rule 66 A of the Representation of the People Act to provide for cluster counting of votes of 15 polling booths taken together as against ward-wise counting that exposes the voting pattern of a ward.
Upon hearing the submission of the Election Commission, the court directed the listing of the matter for July 7 and asked the poll panel to file an affidavit stating its position.
The Election Commission made its submission to the court during the hearing of a public interest litigation by advocate Yogesh Sehgal, who sought direction to the poll panel to do away with ward-wise counting of votes.
The PIL said this method revealed to the political parties the number of votes cast in their favour in each ward.