The Supreme Court is hearing petitions seeking 100% cross-verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 18 told the Supreme Court that statements that four electronic voting machines (EVMs) erroneously logged in votes in favour of the BJP during mock polls held in Kerala were plainly false.

The attention of a Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was drawn to the reports by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms. Mr. Bhushan said the four EVMs had reportedly malfunctioned in the mock polls held at Kasaragod district in Kerala on April 17.

The Bench had asked senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission, to “check it up”.

When the court re-assembled at 2 p.m., a senior Election Commission official, Nitesh Kumar Vyas, informed the court that the “news reports were false”.

“We have verified the allegation from the District Collector and it appears that they are false. We will submit a detailed report to the court,” he submitted.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for another petitioner, Arun Kumar Agarwal, said they had merely alerted the court about the media reports. Their intentions were not adversarial. He said it was heard that formal complaints would be made only on April 18.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 18 told the Supreme Court that statements that four electronic voting machines (EVMs) erroneously logged in votes in favour of the BJP during mock polls held in Kerala were plainly false.

The attention of a Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was drawn to the reports by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms. Mr. Bhushan said the four EVMs had reportedly malfunctioned in the mock polls held at Kasaragod district in Kerala on April 17.

Justice Khanna said the petitioners had gone solely by the media reports and had not verified the issue personally.

The Bench is hearing petitions seeking 100% cross-verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips. The petitioners, including Association for Democratic Reforms, have urged the court to allow voters physical access to the VVPAT slips to confirm the votes they have cast before putting the slips into the sealed ballot boxes. They have contended that the voters have a fundamental right to be confident about the accuracy of the votes they have cast.

The petitioners have voiced their apprehensions that EVMs could malfunction or malicious software could be uploaded, favouring the registration of votes in favour of a party, possibly the ruling one.