Bombay High Court: No illegality in Election Commission’s ban on mobile phones in polls

There is no illegality in the Election Commission of India’s decision banning the use of mobile phones in polls in the upcoming state assembly elections, the Bombay High Court said on Monday.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar dismissed a public interest litigation filed by city-based lawyer Ujala Yadav against the ban on mobile phones in polls in the Maharashtra assembly elections scheduled for November 20.

The PIL had urged the HC to direct the ECI and the State Election Commission to allow voters to carry phones and show identity proofs through the DigiLocker app launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The bench said the ECI has the authority to take all measures for the smooth functioning of the election process.

“It is a cumbersome process as it is a process of making an election. And you (the petitioner) are saying in this case, show the documents in the digital lock,” the court said.

The bench said that any person is not given the right to show their documents on their phones for verification only through digital lockers.

Dismissing the petition, the court said, “We did not find any illegality (in the ECI’s decision).”

The PIL had also claimed that voters would be deterred from voting as arrangements were not made for depositing phones in polling stations.