EVM petitions just to create uncertainty, says EC in court

NEW DELHI: Ruling out any possibility of returning to ballot paper, Supreme Court on Thursday said there was a huge drawback with that system and use of EVMs had stood the test of time with rising voting percentage reflecting voters’ faith in them.

As questions were raised on functioning of EVMs and the possibility of them being tampered with, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked the petitioners not to be “over-suspicious” and appreciated the Election Commission’s efforts to clarify doubts about the functioning of the machines. The bench thereafter reserved its verdict.

“Ballot paper has a huge drawback. We do not want to even think about it,” the bench said when senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the EC, said the EVM system must continue.

Asked by the bench at the outset to “allay the apprehension of everyone inside the courtroom and outside” about EVMs, deputy election commissioner Nitesh Vyas gave a technical presentation on their functioning and answered a volley of questions from the bench. Maninder Singh stoutly defended the prevailing system and told the bench that there were people with vested interests who kept doubting EVMs at the time of polls.

Singh said all allegations levelled by the petitioner were baseless and there was no need for the court to interfere as a similar plea was rejected earlier. “EVM system must stay here. Human intervention has been minimised in the system. Petitions are filed in court just to create uncertainty which is not good for democracy. There are people with vested interests who create suspicion to discredit the system,” he said.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, told the bench they were not doubting the EC but any doubts had to be cleared, especially as the EC had itself admitted that the system was not perfect.

When Bhushan raised a question on changes introduced in EVMs and VVPAT machines, the bench told him, “You are going too far. Everything cannot be suspected. Please do not be critical about everything and appreciate the explanation given by the commission (EC). If they have given an explanation, then you should appreciate it.”

Noting that the voting percentage has increased over the years, the bench said it was also a reflection of people’s faith in the system. As it was pointed out that many advanced European countries had done away with EVMs and returned to ballot paper, the court said, “Do not think that foreign countries are more advanced than India.”

Polling officials organise EVMs in Jaipur on Thursday (PTI photo)

Explaining the functioning of EVMs, Vyas told the bench that everything from the commissioning of EVMs to the counting of votes was under public glare and there was no question of hiding anything. Answering queries from the bench, he said the voting unit comprised of a ballot unit, control unit and a VVPAT unit and even the manufacturer of EVMs did not know which button was going to be allotted to which political party or which machine was going to be allotted to which state or constituency.

It further said, “It is submitted that any possible increase in the number of randomly chosen VVPATs that are to be verified from the existing number of five per assembly constituency will pose tremendous administrative challenges that may not be commensurate with the potential improvements that may be achieved in the statistical confidence levels. Given the fact that till now, there has been no discrepancy observed in the VVPAT slip count, the plea appears to be in the nature of finding a solution wherein no problem exists in the first place,” it said.

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