EVM-VVPAT case: SC rejects petition seeking 100% verification of votes cast on EVMs

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected petitions seeking 100% verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines with paper slips generated through the VVPAT method. 

“There are three pleas taken — that we should return to the paper ballot system, that the printed slips on the VVPAT machine should be given to voters to verify and put in the ballot box for counting, and there should be 100% counting of VVPAT slips in addition to electronic counting…We have rejected all of them after referring to the protocol in place, technical aspects and data which is on record,” the Bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said.

The two-judge bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta delivered concurrent but separate judgments.

The bunch of petitions were filed in the top court seeking a direction to cross-verify every vote cast on EVMs with paper slips generated by the VVPAT system. 

Currently, this cross-verification is done for only five randomly selected EVMs in every Assembly constituency.

"We have discussed, elaborately, all protocols and technical aspects (and) we reject all pleas. Blindly distrusting a system can lead to unwarranted suspicions," Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, while also rejecting a plea to return to paper ballots.

The apex court, however, passed two directions for the Election Commission. The court directed the poll body that after the symbols are loaded into an EVM, the symbol loading unit should be sealed and secured in containers for a period of 45 days after the declaration of results. The candidates and their representatives shall sign the seal. 

Specifically, the court said “on completion of symbol loading process in EVM, undertaken on or after June 1 (the final phase of polling), the SLU should be sealed and secured...”

"The sealed containers containing the SLUs shall be kept in storerooms, with the EVMs, (for) at least for 45 days post declaration of results," the court explained.

The second direction was that the burnt memory in the EVM microcontroller EVM must be checked by a team of engineers, after results are declared, in case a candidate makes such a request.

The request which can be made by candidates who come second and third in the election, must be made within seven days of declaration of results, the court said.

The court also said that the expenses for this verification will have to be borne by the candidate. The cost will, however, be refunded if the EVM is found to have been tampered with, it said.