EVM vote secrecy: Supreme Court asks Centre to examine totaliser machines

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to examine the introduction of totaliser machines for counting votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) to protect secrecy and prevent voters at individual polling booths from being identified and potentially victimised.

The development took place during the hearing of a plea seeking the introduction of totalisers. The machine combines the votes recorded in multiple EVMs before the results are disclosed, making it difficult to determine how a particular polling booth voted.

After hearing the contentions, a three-member bench headed by CJI Surya Kant said that the court would like to know "what are the impediments, if any, and whether there would be any negative impact because of introduction of such a mechanism".


The bench said ECI may make a suitable proposal/representation to the Centre that shall take a call on the proposal. The counsel for ECI supported the principle of anonymising voter choice but flagged practical difficulties with the proposal. These included the need for a statutory amendment and the difficulty in allowing candidates to cross-check results as currently provided under Form 17C.