Supreme Court Dismisses Petitions for Complete Verification of EVM Votes. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has rejected all petitions calling for complete verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.
The Supreme Court decided not to support the requests to verify all votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) alongside Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta made this decision and shared that they dismissed appeals for a return to ballot papers. The petitions were submitted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Abhay Bhakchand Chhajed, and Arun Kumar Aggarwal.
During the hearing, the court issued two specific instructions to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The first instruction is that after completing the process of loading symbols onto the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be securely sealed and stored for a minimum of 45 days.
The second instruction states that the information stored in the microcontroller of the EVMs should be reviewed by a team of engineers once the election results have been declared if candidates who placed 2nd and 3rd in the election request it. This request must be submitted within seven days following the announcement of the election results.
Justice Khanna suggested that the election commission should consider using an electronic machine to count the paper slips with votes. Additionally, he proposed looking into the possibility of assigning a barcode to each party along with their symbol.
Justice Khanna stated that candidates requesting a verification of the voting system need to pay for the expenses. However, these expenses will be refunded if the voting machine is found to be tampered with.
On the other hand, Justice Datta emphasized that blindly distrusting the system can cause unnecessary doubts. He mentioned that democracy thrives on maintaining trust and unity among all its components.
He concluded by saying that promoting trust and teamwork will enhance the democracy’s voice and strength.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the bench asked the election commission to explain where the microcontroller is installed, whether it is programmable, how many Symbol Loading Units are available, the data storage period, and if the Control Unit and VVPAT are sealed separately.
After a poll body official answered the court’s questions, the bench remarked that they cannot interfere with the election process or the duties of another constitutional authority.
“The Election Commission has addressed all doubts. We cannot alter your thinking process or issue orders based on suspicions,” the bench added.
Currently, during elections, only five randomly selected EVMs in each Assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency undergo a VVPAT verification process. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has consistently maintained that EVMs are tamper-proof and that counting all VVPAT slips is not feasible.
Recently, the Supreme Court sent a notice to the ECI in response to a petition requesting the counting of all VVPAT paper slips instead of just verifying a few EVMs.
The petition argued against the Election Commission’s rule requiring VVPAT verification to be conducted sequentially, one after the other, leading to unnecessary delays. It suggested that if simultaneous verification were allowed with extra officers assigned for counting in each Assembly constituency, complete VVPAT verification could be completed in just five to six hours.