1. The Supreme Court dismissed petitions requesting full cross-verification of votes cast via EVMs and VVPATs.
2. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta concurred in rejecting the pleas, including calls for ballot paper reinstatement.
3. The court upheld the existing electoral process, permitting post-result microcontroller verification upon candidates’ requests within seven days.
New Delhi, April 26: The Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking complete cross-verification of votes using EVMs and VVPATs, upholding the current electoral process.
Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta concurred in rejecting the pleas, including those advocating a return to ballot papers.
However, the court permitted verification of EVM microcontrollers by the manufacturer upon request from candidates ranking second and third.
This verification request can be made within seven days of the election results declaration, subject to a fee payment.
Also Read: Clash Erupts Among Voters in Moirabari, Nagaon Constituency, Delaying Assam Lok Sabha Elections 2024
Additionally, the court issued directives: symbol loading unit containers should be sealed in the presence of polling agents and candidates for 45 days, and post-result counting, the control unit, ballot unit, and VVPAT shall be verified by engineers from manufacturing companies.
Previously, doubts were raised about EVM efficacy, with claims of possible tampering to manipulate results, prompting the court to seek clarifications from the Election Commission.
The apex court emphasized it couldn’t interfere with elections solely based on doubts about EVMs’ reliability and rejected calls to revert to ballot papers.
NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms sought a reversal of the EC’s 2017 decision to replace VVPAT’s transparent glass with an opaque one, also advocating a return to the old ballot paper system.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls, which began on April 19, are scheduled to conclude with result announcements on June 4.
