NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday dismissed doubts about hacking and manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), termed pleas for return to the paper ballot system as “foible and unsound” and rejected the prayer for giving voters physical access to VVPAT slips, and for 100% counting of paper slips.
The court was unequivocal in attesting to the integrity of the machines, saying the possibility of hacking or tampering with EVM to tutor/favour results was unfounded. “Accordingly, the suspicion that EVMs can be configured/manipulated for repeated or wrong recording of vote(s) to favour a particular candidate should be rejected,” it said.
The verdict marked a big blow to the high-wattage campaign against EVMs, especially since 2014 when BJP under Narendra Modi pulled off a stunning victory.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, however, passed directions to further strengthen the integrity of the system and ordered that like EVMs, the symbol loading units shall be sealed and secured after completion of symbol loading process in the VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail). It also granted an option to the runner-up and the candidate finishing third to get burnt memory/microcontroller in 5% of EVMs — control unit, ballot unit and VVPAT unit — per assembly constituency/assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency checked and verified after the announcement of results for any tampering.
The apex court examined threadbare the administrative and technical safeguards in EVMs and concluded that there was no substance in the allegations. “Repeated and persistent doubts and despair, even without supporting evidence, can have the contrarian impact of creating distrust. This can reduce citizen participation and confidence in elections, essential for a healthy and robust democracy. Unfounded challenges may actually reveal perceptions and predispositions, whereas this court, as an arbiter and adjudicator of disputes and challenges, must render decisions on facts based on evidence and data,” the bench said.
Noting that the microcontroller used in EVM had one-time programmable memory and was unalterable once burned, the bench said, “To us, it is apparent that a number of safeguards and protocols with stringent checks have been put in place. Data and figures do not indicate artifice and deceit. Reprogramming by flashing, even if we assume is remotely possible, is inhibited by the strict control and checks put in place. Imagination and suppositions should not lead us to hypothesise a wrongdoing without any basis or facts. The credibility of the EC and integrity of the electoral process earned over years cannot be chaffed and over-ridden by baroque contemplations and speculations.”
Noting the almost flawless data on functioning of EVMs and VVPATs, the bench said there was only one case of mismatch, that too because of human error in 2019 when data of the mock poll was not deleted in an EVM. It added that voters had a right to question the working of the system but they must exercise caution while doing so.
On the plea seeking 100% counting of VVPAT slips and right of voters to physical access to the slips, the bench said, “While we acknowledge the fundamental right of voters to ensure their vote is accurately recorded and counted, the same cannot be equated with the right to get physical access to the slips.” It said giving physical access to VVPAT slips to voters was “problematic and impractical which will lead to misuse, malpractices and disputes”.
“We are not inclined to modify the directions to increase the number of VVPAT undergoing slip count for several reasons. First, it will increase the time for counting and delay declaration of results. The manpower required would have to be doubled. Manual counting is prone to human errors and may lead to deliberate mischief. Manual intervention in counting can also create multiple charges of manipulation of results. Further, the data and the results do not indicate any need to increase the number of VVPAT units subjected to manual counting,” it said.
The bench, however, asked EC to explore the possibility of deploying machines to count VVPAT slips and also barcoding the symbols loaded in VVPATs which would be helpful in machine counting.
The court was also unambiguous in ruling out a return to paper ballot which was junked following allegations of largescale malpractices.
“We must reject as foible and unsound the submission to return to the ballot paper system. The weakness of the ballot paper system is well-known and documented. In the Indian context, keeping in view the vast size of the Indian electorate of nearly 97 crore, the number of candidates who contest the elections, the number of polling booths where voting is held, and the problems faced with ballot papers, we would be undoing the electoral reforms by directing reintroduction of ballot papers. EVMs offer significant advantages. They have effectively eliminated booth capturing by restricting the rate of vote casting to votes per minute, thereby prolonging the time needed and thus check insertion of bogus votes,” the bench said.