CHENNAI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) submitted before the Madras High Court that it has instructed all the election officers to install additional CCTV unit in every strong room with dedicated line to ensure the arrangements are not interrupted.
The vacation bench of Justice Jagadish Chandira and Justice R Kalaimathi heard a petition moved by ML Ravi, president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi seeking to form an expert committee to find out the reason for the blackout and snag of CCTV cameras installed to monitor the strong rooms in the State.
The ECI submitted an affidavit stating that instructions has already give to all the district election officers to install additional CCTV unit in every strong rooms where the voting machines and VVPATs are kept safely, with dedicated lines and tv enabling all the political parties to view the footage even if any technical failure occured.
The election officers are also instructed to ensure sufficient measures are taken so that the CCTV are not interrupted for any reasons including technical and electrical, said the affidavit.
Recording the submission the bench disposed of the petition.
The petitioner contended that after the 2024 Parliamentary election in the State completed all the voting machines and VVPATs are kept in strong rooms in various places across the State with security.
However, the CCTV cameras installed in many strong rooms encountered blackout or failure, which raised suspicion in the mind of the voters, said the petitioner.
It was also submitted that in Nilgiri Parliamentary constituency alone 173 CCTV cameras went off for nearly half an hour in the strong room at Ooty.
Likewise, in Erode constituency on April 29, CCTV cameras malfunctioned for about an hour in the strong room at Government College of Engineering, Chithode.
The ECI has the onerous responsibility to secure the sanctity of the election process at any cost, said the petitioner.
Further, it was sought to direct the ECI to constitute an expert committee under a retired judge to find out the reason for the CCTV cameras malfunction and release a white paper in public forum to build confidence in the conduct of election among voters, said the petitioner