The Supreme Court on April 18 urged the petitioners who had filed pleas seeking cross-verification of the votes cast in electronic voting machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) not to suspect every action of Election Commission of India (ECI).
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta said: "Everything the ECI does cannot be suspected like this. Please also appreciate if they have done something good. we heard you because we are also concerned."
The apex court observed this in the light of submissions made by lawyer Prashant Bhushan raising further queries on the sanctity of EVMs in the country's electoral process. The court reserved the case for judgment today. The court also noted that while casting one's vote is fundamental right, 'over-suspicion' may not be the way to go about it.
During the course of the hearing, the court proceeded to quiz an officer from the ECI for two hours on the functioning of EVMs and VVPATs. The court also asked queries on CCTV cameras in polling stations and how the ECI ensures that polling through EVMs are fair and satisfies the candidates of the same.
SC said "This is an electoral process and there needs to be sanctity to it and let there be no doubt about it." Responding to the many queries posed by the court, the ECI officer assured that over four crore VVPATs have been counted so far and they have not found any discrepancies. The court also asked ECI if every voter can be given a slip with the details of their vote, however ECI said it would amount to violation of the voter's privacy.
Similarly, the court queried if every political party can be allotted a bar code so that the process of counting votes becomes more transparent. The ECI however said that it has not considered such a thing, however the same might not be feasible.
The ECI official proceeded to explain that the process of casting vote takes roughly 15 seconds, even though four votes can be cast per minute through an EVM. However, it is usually not done that way as someone has to manually reset the EVM after every vote is cast. ECI further explained that after every vote is cast, the VVPAT slip is displayed for seven seconds before it falls in the machine. The machine does not function if the slip is left 'hanging' thus it is fool proof. ECI also assured the court that it would be impossible to tamper with the EVMs .
According to the ECI, an official who is found tampering with the EVM is punishable with a fine of Rs 500. The court, however, noted that the punishment for such an act should be more severe, however it refused to further discuss the topic.
ECI assured to the court that there has thus far been no mismatch between EVM and VVPAT data. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, who appeared for the poll panel said: "The allegations (of mismatch) are based on the result of a machine which does not belong to the Election Commission of India at all. This uncertainty is not a nuisance to the democratic process itself."
Earlier during the hearing, the SC asked ECI to probe the allegation that during a mock poll in Kerala, extra votes were recorded in favour of the BJP in the EVMs.
During the post-lunch session, ECI told the court that the allegation was found to be false.
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