SC poses five questions to EC on EVM-VVPAT case, calls poll panel official to give clarification

Ahead of its verdict today on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections, the Supreme Court today morning sought the presence of a few  senior official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the court at 2 pm to answer a few queries.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta has sought answers to the following five questions.

1. Is micro controller installed in the control unit or VVPAT?

2. Is micro controller one time programmable ?

3. You referred to the symbol loading unit , how many of them are available?

More from India

'First Assam visit after Op Sindoor': PM Modi inaugurates projects worth Rs 18,530 cr India to host fifth Coast Guard Global Summit in Chennai in 2027

4. EC said limitation period for filing election petition is 30 days so EVMs are kept for 30 days. However according to the representation of peoples act it is 45 days, please clarity.

5. Are EVM, VVPAT, control unit are stored together or kept separately?

“We went through the FAQs. We just wanted three-four clarifications. We don’t want to be factually wrong but doubly sure in our findings and hence we thought of seeking the clarification,” the bench told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who was appearing for the EC.

It asked Bhati to call senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas at 2 PM. Vyas had earlier given a presentation to the court on the functioning of the EVMs.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

'New dawn': PM Modi meets Manipur violence victims in first visit since 2023 unrest

CP Radhakrishnan takes oath as Vice President of India

On April 18, the top court reserved its verdict on the batch of pleas.

Underscoring the importance of voter satisfaction and trust in the electoral system, the top court had during the hearing told petitioners, who sought its direction to go back to using ballot papers, not to suspect the efficacy of EVMs and appreciate if the Election Commission does good work.

NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR), one of the petitioners, sought reversal of the poll panel’s 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds.

On April 16, the top court had deprecated criticism of EVMs and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”.

The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls began on April 19 and the second phase is slated to be held on April 26.

The ADR has sought matching the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably “recorded as cast” and to ensure the voter is able to verify through VVPAT slip that his vote, as recorded on the paper slip, has been “counted as recorded”.

With inputs from agencies