The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to respond to a PIl which raised doubts on the efficacy of electronic voting machines (EVM) and sought total implementation of the court’s earlier decision to install paper trail technology in all voting machines.
The Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to the poll panel on the PIl filed by advocate Manohar lal Sharma. The court did not seek the response of the Centre as it wished to ascertain from the Commission the veracity of the charge that EVMs were open to tampering.
The petition drew the attention of the Court to recent stories in the media where certain political parties raised the banner against tampered EVMs. It sought examination of the quality of EVMs and software contained in it from a scientific lab or a software expert.
The petition also highlighted the direction passed by the Supreme Court in 2013 insisting on introduction of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in each EVM. Under this system, when the voter presses the button on the machine, a paper trail will emerge out showing which candidate or symbol secured the vote. It will appear for few seconds and will fall into a compartment meant to collect the paper trails.
The poll panel had informed the Court then that the paper trail technology will be implemented in EVMs in a phased manner throughout the country. The Bench is expected to take stock of its direction from the commiss-
ion on the next date.
The petitioner referred to a statement by the poll panel which said that EVMs are tamper-proof only until their technical, mechanical and software details remain a secret. “These details can be detected via reverse engineering by any expert. Wireless device/software can be prepared via reverse engineering, and with their help voting records can be changed in any location and at any time,” the plea said.
Following the rout of several political parties in UP and Punjab, BSP chief Mayawati openly alleged foul play by claiming that the EVMs could have been tampered with. Even Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal requested EC to check whether EVMs were foolproof. Howe-
ver, EC dismissed the charges by vouching for the efficacy and accuracy of EVMs.