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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the ban on mobile phones inside polling booths for the upcoming Maharashtra State Assembly Elections on 20th November.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar was hearing a PIL filed by Ujala Shyambihari Yadav, a member of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, sought that voters be allowed to bring mobile phones into polling booths and to present identification documents through the DigiLocker app, an application approved by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The division bench of the high court remarked that the election process is already cumbersome, and no right is vested in any person to show documents for verification through a mobile phone.

The petitioner argued that banning mobile phones may cause inconvenience to voters who rely on DigiLocker for accessing official identification documents.

The PIL sought directions to ensure that the Election Commission permits voters to use mobile phones for this purpose, aiming to enhance accessibility and convenience at polling stations.

The PIL argued that mobile phones should be permitted in polling booths as the ban would create hardships for “senior citizens, females, and individuals” who may need to contact family members or others for assistance. Additionally, it emphasized that the ban would inconvenience voters who rely on digital identification documents through DigiLocker.

The petition cites national data, highlighting that over 321 million users and 7.76 billion documents are stored on DigiLocker.

The plea further contended that banning phones infringes upon the rights of voters, “Each voter is par of democracy, and each vote matters for a healthy democracy. Nowadays, mobile phones are a sort of necessity to communicate and for digitisation purposes," the plea reads.