CCTV footage barred to prevent ‘misuse’, ensure voter privacy, claims CEC

Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday, 7 January, 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’.

Based on the 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 the tweak of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, Kumar said only sharing of CCTV footage from inside and outside polling booths has been restricted.

Addressing a press conference to announce the schedule for the Delhi assembly polls, he said such data or footage was banned for public inspection through the Election Commission'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 polling takes place over 10 hours is given out, it would mean data of around 1 crore hours, he pointed out. "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 factcheckers 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 said.

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; 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 Election Commission of India 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.