The Aryavarth Express
Agency(New Delhi): The Supreme Court has mandated the Election Commission of India (ECI) to validate allegations concerning discrepancies in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) counts during a mock poll in Kasaragod, Kerala. Advocate Prashant Bhushan raised concerns that four EVMs recorded additional votes for the BJP, prompting this scrutiny.
The bench, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, underscored the importance of electoral integrity during the hearing which addressed the broader issue of cross-verifying EVM votes with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) outputs, as reported by Live Law.
The justices emphasized the sanctity of the electoral process, expressing their desire to prevent any doubts regarding its fairness. Bhushan referred to an incident reported by Manorama Online, where it was claimed that during mock polls, both the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) reported that at least four EVMs erroneously added extra votes to the BJP’s tally.
In response to queries about the operation of EVMs and VVPAT systems, the ECI explained that all machines undergo rigorous mock polling checks in the presence of political party representatives before being secured for the election.
During the proceedings, advocate Nizham Pasha, representing a petitioner, argued for allowing voters to retain their VVPAT slips post-voting to ensure transparency, which raised questions about voter privacy from Justice Khanna.
Furthermore, the court expressed skepticism about the practicality of manually counting votes given India’s large population, a point challenged by Bhushan who advocated a return to ballot paper voting. However, Justice Khanna reminisced about the complications experienced during the era of ballot paper voting, contrasting it with the current system.
The hearing also touched on international practices, dismissing Bhushan’s point about European countries reverting from EVMs to traditional paper ballots, highlighting a global context to the ongoing debate over voting methodologies in India.
