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Synopsis

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the Election Commission of India's notification banning mobile phones inside polling booths for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The PIL, filed by Ujala Shyambihari Yadav, a member of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, seeks 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 petitioner argues that banning mobile phones may cause inconvenience to voters who rely on DigiLocker for accessing official identification documents.

The PIL seeks 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 argues 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 emphasizes 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 contends 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.