A view of the Supreme Court of India. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
A petition filed by five-time former MLA Karan Singh Dalal, who contested Haryana Legislative Assembly Election in 2024, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to lay down a policy or memorandum for checking and verifying the original burnt memory or microcontroller of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) was shuttled to another Bench, the third in a row, in the Supreme Court of India, on Friday (December 20, 2024.)
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said the petition would be heard by a Bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta.
On December 13, a Bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath, before which the petition came up, had bowed out of hearing the case after opining that the Bench headed by Chief Justice Khanna ought to hear it. The opinion was based on the fact that Justice Khanna (as he was then) had heard and pronounced a judgment on electronic voting machines (EVMs) in April 2024. Justice Datta was the puisne judge on the Bench headed by Justice Khanna which gave the judgment in the Association for Democratic Reforms case in April.
Mr. Dalal, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocates Neha Rathi and Pranav Sachdeva, has argued that the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the control unit, ballot unit, Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and symbol loading unit) must not be deleted. The petition said EVMs and VVPATs must be under safe custody.
The April 26 judgment delivered by the Bench of Justices Khanna and Datta had upheld the EVM system of polling while refusing a plea to revive paper ballots. The court had said “blind distrust” of an institution or a system bred unwarranted skepticism and impeded progress.
In a separate direction, the Supreme Court had ordered that from May 1, 2024, Symbol Loading Units (SLU) must be sealed and secured after the process of loading symbols into VVPATs was over. Each SLU must be sealed in a special container in the presence of the candidates or their representatives, who would affix their signatures on the seal. The containers have to be stored in a strong room along with the EVMs for 45 days post the declaration of the election results.
The judgment had directed that the burnt memory of microcontrollers of five per cent of EVMs, which includes that of control units, ballot units, VVPATs, in every Assembly segment of a Parliamentary constituency can be checked and verified by a team of engineers of the EVM manufacturers in case of any suspicion of tampering.
“The exercise would be initiated on a written request from candidates who come second or third in the victor’s tally,” the judgment had said. The applicants would identify the EVM to be verified or the polling station. The application for verification should be sent within seven days of the declaration of the election results.
“The District Election Officer concerned, in consultation with the team of engineers, should verify the authenticity or intactness of the burnt memory of the microcontrollers of the EVMs verified,” the April judgment had directed.
“The expenses of the verification would be undertaken by the applicant candidates or their representatives. They would be refunded in case the EVMs are found tampered,” the court had directed.
Published – December 20, 2024 01:29 pm IST