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New Delhi: On Friday, all the petitions seeking the complete verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips rejected by the Supreme Court.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two concurring verdicts in the matter. Justice Khanna said at the hearing,”We rejected all pleas related to bringing ballot papers again.”
Earlier, the Court had reserved its judgement on the petitions for April 18 after two days of hearing. However, it had again listed the matter for discussion on April 24 to understand the workings of the EVMs with the ECI. The writ petitions were filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Abhay Bhakchand Chhajed and Arun Kumar Aggarwal.
During the hearing, Supreme Court said that there are two concurring verdicts on pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with VVPAT. It said,”One direction is after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed. The SLU should be stored at least for a period of 45 days.”
Second direction issued by Supreme Court said, “The burnt memory in the microcontroller EVM shall be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results on a request by candidates in serial numbers 2 and 3. Such a request has to be made within seven days after the declaration of results.”
Justice Khanna further asked the poll body to examine the suggestion for an electronic machine for vote counting the paper slips and whether along with the symbol there can be a bar code for each party.On Wednesday, during the hearing, the bench sought answers to certain technical queries linked to the functioning of EVMs, including whether the microcontrollers fitted in them are reprogrammable.
Justice Khanna said that “the cost of verification (of the program) will be borne by the requesting candidates, if the EVM is found to be tampered with, the cost will be refunded”. He also said, “Blindly distrusting a system can give rise to undue suspicion”.
He further said, “Democracy means maintaining harmony and trust among all pillars”. He added, “By promoting a culture of trust and cooperation, we can strengthen the voice of our democracy”.
