EVM VVPAT case: SC rejects pleas seeking paper audit of all votes, says 'blindly doubting can breed scepticism'

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected all the petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

The apex court also rejected the prayers of petitioners to return to ballot paper voting.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta gave two directions — one direction is after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and it should be stored for at least for 45 days.


The second direction issued by SC is that there will be option for candidates to get the microcontroller program of EVMs to be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results, such a request is to be made by the candidate within seven days after the declaration of results.

While delivering the verdict Justice Dipankar Datta said, "While balanced perspective is important but blindly doubting a system can breed scepticism and thus meaningful criticism is needed," reported Bar and Bench.

"Be it judiciary, legislature etc, democracy is all about maintaining harmony and trust among all the pillars. By nurturing a culture of trust and collaboration we can strengthen the voice of our democracy," he added.

SC had on Wednesday said it cannot "control the elections" or issue directions simply because doubts have been raised about the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), as it reserved its judgement on the clutch of petitions, which also claimed the polling devices can be tinkered with to manipulate the results.

The court said it cannot change the thought process of those doubting the advantages of polling machines and advocating going back to ballot papers.

The bench also took note of the answers to queries it posed to the Election Commission.

It sought answers from an official of the poll panel to five questions related to the functioning of EVMs, including whether the microcontrollers fitted in them are reprogrammable.

After a two-day hearing, the bench had on April 18 reserved its verdict on the pleas. However, the matter was listed again on Wednesday as the court wanted some clarifications from the EC.

NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', one of the petitioners, had sought reversal of the poll panel's 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds.

The petitioners had also sought the court's direction to revert to the old system of ballot papers.

The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls began on April 19 and will conclude with the announcement of results on June 4.