STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected pleas for reviving paper ballots and also 100 per cent cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), holding that suspicions regarding tampering of the voting machines were “unfounded”.
As the country voted in round two of the seven-phase 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the top court said the Electronic Voting Machines(EVM) were “secure” and eliminates booth capturing and bogus voting.
Weighing in on the intensely debated EVM issue that has long divided political parties, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said the plea for return to the ballot paper system was “foible and unsound”, noting that the weakness of this system was well known and documented. The two judges gave two separate but concurring verdicts.
“While maintaining a balanced perspective is crucial in evaluating systems or institutions, blindly distrusting any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism,” the court said, adding that democracy is all about striving to build harmony and trust between all institutions.
The top court’s long anticipated verdict quickly found echo in the pollscape with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying at a rally in Araria in Bihar that it was a “tight slap” on the Congress-led opposition which now must “apologise” for committing the “sin of creating distrust” against EVMs. Hailing the verdict, he claimed “their(opposition) dreams have been shattered into pieces”.
The Congress on its part said in a post on X that it will continue with its political campaign on greater use of VVPATs to increase public trust in the electoral process.
The apex court also issued two directives in the EVM case.
The court opened a window for aggrieved unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in poll results and allowed them to seek verification of microcontroller chips embedded in five per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of fee to the poll panel.
It also directed that from May 1, the symbol loading units (SLU) should be sealed and secured in a container and stored in a strongroom along with the EVMs for a minimum period of 45 days post declaration of results.
Request for the verification of the microcontroller can be made within seven days of declaration of the results after payment of fees, the court said.
“If EVM is found tampered during verification, fees paid by the candidates will be refunded.”
An EVM comprises three units — ballot unit, control unit and the VVPAT. All three are embedded with microcontrollers which have a burnt memory from the manufacturer.
Currently, the Election Commission conducts random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs at five polling booths per assembly constituency. VVPAT is an independent vote verification system which enables electors to see whether their votes have been recorded correctly.
The bench suggested the poll panel can examine whether electronic machines can be used for counting VVPAT slips and also whether bar codes can be used for parties along with their symbols.
Besides seeking a return to the ballot paper system, the three petitions before it had prayed that VVPAT slips should be given to the voter to verify and put in the ballot box for counting and there should be 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips, it said.
“We have rejected all of them,” Justice Khanna said.
A few hours later, Prime Minister Modi referred to the verdict in his Araria rally.
“When the Congress, the RJD and other INDIA bloc parties were in power, the poor, backwards and Dalits used to be deprived of their votes through booth capture. With the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines, they are no longer able to play their old game. Hence, they committed the sin of creating distrust against EVMs,” he said.
Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal described the court verdict as “fabulous”.
He said the verdict has exposed opposition parties, including the Congress, which had left no opportunity to “defame” the Election Commission.
Penning a 38-page verdict on behalf of the bench, Justice Khanna said the incorporation of VVPAT fortifies the principle of vote verifiability, thereby enhancing the overall accountability of the electoral process.
The court said the possibility to hack or tamper with the agnostic firmware in the burnt memory of EVMs to tutor/favour results was unfounded.
“Accordingly, the suspicion that the EVMs can be configured/manipulated for repeated or wrong recording of vote(s) to favour a particular candidate should be rejected.”
On the claim by the petitioners that the polling devices can be tinkered with to manipulate the results, the court said repeated and persistent doubts and despair, even without supporting evidence, can have the “contrarian impact of creating distrust”.
Justice Datta, who gave his separate opinion while concurring with Justice Khanna, came down heavily on the PIL petitioners saying there seems to be a concerted effort to discredit, diminish and weaken India’s progress on every possible frontier and any such attempt has to be “nipped in the bud”.
He said in recent years, a trend has been fast developing of certain vested interest groups endeavouring to undermine the achievements and accomplishments of the nation.
Justice Datta further said the court cannot allow the entire process of the ongoing general elections to be called into question and upended on mere apprehension and speculation of the petitioners regarding the efficacy of EVMs.
“The mere suspicion that there may be a mismatch in votes cast through EVMs, thereby giving rise to a demand for a 100 per cent VVPAT slips verification, is not a sufficient ground for the present set of writ petitions to be considered maintainable,” he said.
“A voting mechanism must uphold and adhere to the principles of security, accountability, and accuracy. An over complex voting system may engender doubt and uncertainty, thereby easing the chances of manipulation. In our considered opinion, the EVMs are simple, secure and user-friendly. The voters, candidates and their representatives, and the officials of the ECI are aware of the nitty-gritty of the EVM system. They also check and ensure righteousness and integrity,” the court said.
The court also said that since 2019 the Election Commission of India has, except for one discrepancy, not detected any single case of vote mismatch or wrong recording of votes on random VVPAT verification of five polling booths per assembly constituency.
Giving physical access to VVPAT slips to voters is problematic and impractical and will lead to misuse, malpractices and disputes, it added.
EC officials pointed out that constitutional courts had rejected petitions challenging the reliability of the electronic voting machines on at least 40 occasions.
The functionaries also referred to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar’s recent remarks that EVMs are “100 per cent safe” and political parties know in the “heart of their hearts” that the machines are fair.
To enhance transparency and verifiability in the poll process, the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 were amended in 2013 to introduce the use of VVPAT machines. They were first used in the by-election to the Noksen assembly seat in Nagaland.
