Reply to plea seeking verification of EVM data: SC tells EC
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission’s response over a plea seeking verification of the burnt memory and symbol loading units of Electronic Voting Machines, according to Live Law.
Considering the petition by the non-profit Association for Democratic Reforms, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta directed the commission not to erase or reload data on EVMs during verification.
Previously in April 2024, the court directed to seal symbol loading units for 45 days after elections and also candidates made it to second or third position could seek access to burnt memory, in which EVMS stores election data permanently.
However, a symbol loading unit uploads candidate details to the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail, or VVPAT, system, according to the report.
The VVPAT, which prints a paper slip of the candidate’s name, serial number and their party symbol upon voting, displays the paper slip for seven seconds to avoid election fraud helping voters to check if they voted to their preferred candidate.
The petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms argued that the Election Commission’s standard operating procedure for the verification of EVMs was not in compliance with the guidelines the court issued in an April 2024 verdict.
The court previously on April 26, 2024 rejected petitions that sought the tallying of all VVPAT slips to verify votes cast through EVMs, while directing to seal the symbol loading unit and be kept available for at least 45 days after the election.
The court also directed that the candidates who emerge second and third positions could seek to examine the burnt memory of the EVMs.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Association for Democratic Reforms, told the court yesterday that the poll panel’s standard operating procedure was not in compliance with the 2024 verdict, according to Live Law.
‘What we want is that somebody should examine the software and hardware of EVM to see whether they have any element of manipulations or not,’ he was quoted as saying.
It is reported that the court will hear the matter next on March 3.