Appeals for cross-verification of EVMs with VVPATs: Supreme Court holds off on making a decision

Just one day before the first round of the Lok Sabha elections gets underway, the Supreme Court postponed rulings on a number of petitions requesting guidance to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Central government to guarantee that voters can confirm, via VVPATs, that their vote has been “counted as recorded”.

“Everything does not need us to be suspicious. Not everything is questionable. During the hearing of the EVM-VVPAT case, a two-judge bench of the highest court, presided over by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, informed advocate Prashant Bhushan, the attorney for one of the petitioners, “You can’t be critical of everything.”

In the pre-lunch segment of today’s hearing, Bhushan, representing one of the petitioners, referred to a report on Kerala’s mock election results, which showed that the BJP had received more votes than usual yesterday. According to a media report, he said that during Wednesday’s mock election in Kasaragod, at least four electronic voting machines (EVMs) mistakenly recorded votes in favor of the BJP.

Following their hearing of Bhushan’s claims, the bench of the supreme court ordered the ECI to investigate and review them.

Following lunch, the top court was informed by the ECI that the Kasaragod event, which was brought up by Bhushan, the petitioner’s attorney, was untrue. It said that the accusations are predicated on the output of a machine that is not owned by the ECI.

India’s Supreme Court
How far SC has pushed the boundaries on VVPAT transparency
Senior counsel Maninder Singh argued on behalf of the ECI on the primary point raised by the batch of appeals, stating that the EVMs are independent devices that are impervious to manipulation. It was likewise impossible to tamper with the VVPATs. While it has been reduced, human error in manual counting cannot be completely eliminated. “No EVM tampering/mismatch between votes polled and counted is possible,” he said before the Supreme Court.

“The Presiding Officer clicks the ‘Close’ button to end the poll. After then, no votes are accepted by the EVM. Both the Presiding Officer and the machine record the “start time” and “end time” of the poll, Singh informed the Supreme Court.

Another petitioner’s attorney, Advocate S. Stephen, said that the votes should be tabulated and the VVPAT and EVM counts should occur concurrently. He said that if there is a discrepancy, it has to be investigated.

According to Stephen, in the event of a dispute, paper slips should take precedence over digital data as the latter is susceptible to manipulation. He said that 100% tally is what’s needed right now.

An ECI representative attempted to persuade the Supreme Court that the petitions submitted lacked evidence by demonstrating to them that it was impossible to tamper with the EVMs and that the chance was very small.

India’s Supreme Court
We kindly request that all EVM votes be 100% verified using VVPAT slips. SC requests ECI to describe the procedure.
India’s Supreme Court
DMK expresses worry over the symbol unit in VVPATs.