Andhra Pradesh High Court Stays Launching Of "E-Watch Online" App By State Election Commission Till February 9

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday stayed the launch of e-Watch Online application to be used by the State Election Commission in the upcoming Gram Panchayat/Local Elections till 9th February 2021.

The application was launched on Wednesday by the State Election Commission for reporting the violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and curbing malpractices during the local body/ gram panchayat elections in the State, thereby ensuring free and fair elections.

However, the application was challenged in the High Court hours after its launch.

According to the petitioners, the State Election Commission did not comply with the National Cyber Security Policy, 2013 and the Andhra Pradesh Cyber Security Policy, 2017 guidelines issued by the Union of India, Election Commission of India and State Election Commission.

Moreover, the petitioners argued that the State Election Commission ignored the existing cVIGIL or NIGHAA mobile applications, therefore, the act of the Commission must be declared as being arbitrary and illegal.

The Court after hearing the bunch of PILs agreed to the grievances of the petitioners and observed that:

"One of the grounds urged by the learned counsel for the petitioners is that necessary Security Audit Certificate is yet to be obtained and therefore without such certificate, it will be impermissible for the State Election Commission to use the application."

The stay order came after the government pleader appearing on behalf of the State Government submitted that the Secretary of State Election Commission had written a letter on 4th February 2021 to the Managing Director of A.P. Technology Services, nodal agency for issuing certificates to websites and applications, requesting issuing of the said certificate for hosting e-Watch application.

He also informed the Court that the process normally takes about five days and therefore, in view of this, the Court decided to take up the matter on 9th February 2021 and stayed the use of the application in the upcoming elections for the time being.

"Considering the matter in its entirety, we deem it appropriate to take up these petitions on 09.02.2021 for further consideration. Till then, e-Watch Mobile Application shall not be given effect to by the State Election Commission." The Court ordered.

Order Dated: 05.02.2021

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