On Friday (26th April), the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions demanding a 100% verification of all votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails, or VVPATs, and going back to paper ballots.
The decision was delivered by a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sanjiv Khanna. Justice Khanna delivered the verdict, stating that the court had thoroughly studied the procedures and technical factors and hence dismissed the request for 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.
“One suggestion which can be examined by the Election Commission of India would be whether there can be electronic machines for counting paper slips and whether there can be a bar code along with the symbols as regards which party,” he added.
#BREAKING #SupremeCourt rejects pleas for complete EVM-VVPAT verification.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) April 26, 2024
Court directs that the Symbol Loading Units should also be sealed and secured.
Court also directs that there will be option for candidates to get the microcontroller program of EVMS to be checked by a… https://t.co/A3sjuZqBVU
However, the Bench ruled in two directions. The first was that upon completion of the symbol loading process in VVPATs on or after 1.5.2024, the Symbol Loading Units (SLU) would be sealed and locked in a container, and the sealed container would be stored in a strong room with EVMs for at least 45 days following the post results.
The second instruction said that the burnt memory semi-controller in 5% of EVMs, i.e., the ballot unit, control unit, and VVPAT, per assembly segment of the parliament constituency, must be checked and certified by an EVM manufacturer’s engineering staff.
The VVPAT machine is attached to the EVM’s ballot unit and enables visual verification of a voter’s vote by producing a slip of paper with the voter’s selection on it. This is then utilized to confirm the votes cast in five randomly selected polling booths in each Assembly segment. The opposition asked that all VVPAT slips be cross-checked against the EVM votes.
On Wednesday (24th April), the Supreme Court while highlighting the autonomy of the Election Commission of India observed that they don’t control the elections and the poll body has cleared doubts regarding EVMs. During today’s proceedings, the top court also reiterated that the EVM source codes should never be disclosed as doing so can lead to its misuse.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan has been the primary activist against EVMs in the Supreme Court. Despite repeat rejections and multiple clarifications by the government and the ECI that the EVMs are tamper-proof, Bhushan, supported by Opposition parties, has been constantly fearmongering against EVMs. To date, no evidence of tampering against EVMs has been found to support his claims.
On Wednesday, Justice Sanjiv Khanna had remarked, “We are in our 60s. We all know what happened when there were ballot papers, you may have, but we have not forgotten.”
