The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India not to delete data stored in the burnt memory and Symbol Loading Units (SLUs) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
The Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta issued notice to the Commission on an application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking directions to the ECI to allow verification of the burnt memory and SLUs of EVMs.
Appearing for the Commission, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh contended that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) framed by the ECI for verification of the EVMs was not in accordance with the April 2024 judgment delivered by the Apex Court in the EVM-VVPAT case.
Referring to part-B of the directives issued in the ADR vs Election Commission case, the Apex Court made the verbal observation that the directions passed in the April 2024 verdict did not intend to erase or reload the polling data in EVMs.
It only intended for the EVM machines to be verified and checked by an engineer from the EVM manufacturing company after the polling was conducted.
The top court of the country said it did not direct for either reloading or erasing of the data. Its intention was that in case somebody asked after the polls, an engineer should come and certify that according to him in their presence, there has been no tampering in any of the burnt memory or the micro-chips stock.
Part B of the April 2024 verdict said that the burnt memory semi-controller in 5 percent of EVMs, including the Control Unit, the Ballot Unit and the VVPAT per Assembly constituency and per Assembly segment of the Parliamentary constituency, shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from the manufacturers of the EVM post the announcement of results, for any tampering or modification, on a written request made by the candidates at serial number 2 or 3 behind the highest polled candidate.
Such candidates or their representatives shall identify the EVMs by the polling station or the serial number, it added.
Noting that the amount of Rs 40,000 fixed by the ECI as the cost for verification of EVMs was too high, the Bench directed the Commission to reduce the amount.
It further ordered the ECI to file a short affidavit explaining the SOPs adopted for the verification of EVMs.
The Apex Court recorded in it’s order the ECI’s statement that no modification or correction of EVM data would be done.
The Bench then listed the matter for further hearing in the week commencing on March 3, 2025.
The Apex Court today dismissed a petition filed by former Haryana Minister Karan Singh Dalal and Lakhan Kumar Singla (a candidate in the recent Haryana Assembly elections) seeking verification of the EVMs used in the Haryana Assembly elections, since an earlier petition filed by them on the same cause was withdrawn without obtaining liberty to file a fresh petition.
Since a similar petition filed by Dalal was withdrawn, without obtaining liberty to file a fresh petition, the second petition was not maintainable, noted the Bench.
Representing ADR, Advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that ECI’s SOPs on EVM verifications were not adequate as per the main decision of the Court.
He sought directions for a person to examine the software and hardware of EVM and check whether they have any element of manipulations or not.
Appearing for another petitioner, Sarva Mitter (connected matter), Senior Advocate Devadat Kamat submitted that instead of carrying out proper verification of the EVMs on which the polling was done, only a mock poll was conducted costing around Rs 40,000, when the total machine did not cost more than Rs 30000.