NEW DELHI: Amidst continued criticism of Electronic Voting Machines by opposition parties, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission to explain whether it scrupulously followed the SC-laid down SOP for verification of authenticity of EVMs by engineers after the completion of polls.
Asking the Election Commission not to delete data from the concerned EVMs, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta sought an affidavit from the EC by March 3 as Congress candidate Sarv Mitter, who lost to INLD candidate Arjun Chautala in the Rania assembly constituency of Haryana, complained through senior advocate Devadatt Kamat that the EC was “reluctant to allow scrutiny of burnt memory/microcontroller of EVMs” and alleged that one EVM which was taken up for scrutiny showed the data empty.
The same bench in its April 26, 20024 judgment in Association of Democratic Reforms had ordered that on the written request of candidates coming second and third in an election within seven days of declaration of results, “the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5% of the EVMs, that is, the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT, per assembly constituency/assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency shall be checked and verified by the team of engineers from the manufacturers of the EVMs, post the announcement of the results, for any tampering or modification.”
The SC had also directed that “The District Election Officer, in consultation with the team of engineers, shall certify the authenticity/intactness of the burnt memory/microcontroller after the verification process is conducted. The actual cost or expenses for the said verification will be notified by the ECI, and the candidate making the said request will pay for such expenses.”
Kamat said the SC in its April 2024 judgement had directed EC to devise a mechanism for checking and verification of the burnt memory and microcontroller of the EVMs but the EC “has completely failed to devise a proper mechanism and on the contrary issued directions contrary to the SC decision.”
For the EC, senior advocate Maninder Singh said the SC has time and again reposed faith in the EVMs and their working and repelled attempts to take the country back to the days of paper ballot, which saw massive rigging and booth capturing by goons employed by politicians.
He said the EC has scrupulously followed the SC-laid down mechanism for testing authenticity of the EVMs and argued that the other petitioner, Congress candidate Karan Singh Dalal who was defeated from Palwal assembly constituency, has filed another petition despite withdrawing an identical petition. The bench agreed with Singh and refused to entertain Dalal’s petition.
Kamat said when Mitter sought verification of authenticity of EVMS in nine polling stations in Rania assembly constituency, the district election officer resorted to conducting a mock poll on the EVM used for the constituency and testing its burnt memory/microcontroller.
The petitioner sought a direction to the EC to lay down a policy/memorandum for the checking and verification of original burnt memory/ microcontroller of the four components of the EVM (Control Unit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT and Symbol Loading Unit) in terms of the April 2024 judgment.
