Chandigarh (Gurpreet Singh): The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a series of binding directives to the State Election Commission to secure complete impartiality, transparency, and administrative accountability during the upcoming Punjab Municipal Corporation and local body elections. Disposing of several public interest petitions that raised serious concerns over potential booth capturing and administrative interference, the High Court mandated the compulsory installation of closed-circuit television cameras inside as well as outside every single polling booth and counting station across the state.
To prevent post-poll tampering and maintain the sanctity of the democratic exercise, the division bench ordered that the recorded CCTV footage from every phase of the voting and tabulation process must be securely archived for a minimum duration of one year. The High Court explicitly warned that under no circumstances should any part of the recorded data be deleted, wiped, or destroyed without formal regulatory clearance. The court specified that if a candidate files an official election petition challenging the declared outcomes of any particular ward, the corresponding video files must remain under judicial custody and cannot be disposed of without the express written permission of the designated Election Tribunal.
The judicial mandate places a direct onus of operational compliance on regional administrative officers. Returning Officers have been strictly instructed to verify that all electronic surveillance cameras remain in optimal, uninterrupted working condition throughout the voting and counting cycles, backed by synchronized monitoring frameworks. The High Court appended a stern warning to this protocol, noting that any instance of camera failure, unrecorded blind spots, or monitoring negligence would invite immediate disciplinary and punitive action against the delinquent field staff in charge.
Addressing security anxieties ahead of the high-stakes grassroots contests, the bench established an expedited safety mechanism for contesting candidates. The court ruled that if any candidate perceives a credible threat to their physical safety or campaign teams, they can directly submit a formal protection application to the concerned district Senior Superintendent of Police, who is legally bound to evaluate the risk and initiate immediate protective deployments. Furthermore, to prevent protracted legal disputes from stalling local governance, the High Court ordered that all post-election litigation must be resolved on a priority basis within six months, strictly aligning with existing procedural timelines established by the Supreme Court of India.
