A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to increase the number of voters per polling booth to 1,500 or more. (Indu Prakash Singh v Election Commission of India and anr)

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, PV Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan on Thursday directed that a copy of the PIL be served on the ECI through its Standing Counsel.

The matter will be taken up next in the week commencing December 2 (by when Justice Khanna is poised to become the Chief Justice of India).

The plea by one Indu Prakash Singh was filed through Advocate Talha Abdul Rahman and drawn by Advocates Rafid Akhter and Sudhanshu Tewari.

It prays for directions that the number of electors per polling both be 1,200 as has been followed from 1957 to 2016, and the number of polling stations be increased to a sufficient number as per the mandate under Section 25 of the Representation of People Act.

Further directions are sought towards ensuring that, at the most, the ratio of 1,000-1,200 electors per polling station is maintained subject to urban and rural classification differentiation of polling centres, and progressive reduction of such numbers in future.

This is so as to remove "structural/institutional barriers to the exercise of the right to vote, having regard to the principle of non-retrogression," the plea states.

Senior Advocates Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Shadan Farasat assisted by Advocates Natasha Maheshwari and Abhishek Babbar appeared for the petitioner.

Singhvi today submitted that poor labourers have to stand in queues for up to three hours to vote, and hence the issue strikes at the basic structure of the Constitution.

The Bench, however, did not issue notice at this stage but sought that that the national poll body clarify the factual position on how the number of booths are 'rationalised'.