SC rejects all petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips

SC rejects all petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected all the petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

The top court, however, issued two directions – one regarding symbol loading units and the second on the microcontroller programme of the EVMs.

As per the top court’s first direction, after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and stored at least for 45 days.

The second direction issued by the Supreme Court is that there will be an option for candidates to get the microcontroller programme of EVMs checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results.

The court said that such a request should be made by the candidate within seven days after the declaration of results.

The top court also rejected the prayers of petitioners to return to ballot paper voting.

After the court’s verdict, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said, “Supreme Court rejected all of our demands and said that if a barcode is put on all ballot paper, then examine if it can be mechanically counted by machine. They also said that the Symbol Loading Unit should also be sealed for at least 45 days after elections so that if a petition is filed and court orders something, it can be taken care of.”

“We said that the EVMs have a programmable memory because symbol loading takes place and that is why they can be manipulated if you uploaded a malicious program. That is why, it is essential that the paper trail audit of VVPAT is done and all VVPAT slips are counted. Since black glass was installed even in VVPATs we were requesting that it be replaced with transparent glass or the slip be handed over to the voter and then put in a ballot box so that it can be counted later,” he added.