The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to look into the allegation that during a mock election in Kerala, extra votes were recorded in favour of the BJP in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta passed the verbal direction when a report regarding the EVM issue was brought to its attention. The bench was hearing the EVM-VVPAT case.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Prashant Bhushan noted a news report about the complaints raised regarding the mock election carried out on the EVMs in the Kasargod constituency in Kerala. The report said a complaint has also been lodged by LDF candidate and CPM leader M V Balakrishnan with the District Collector Inbasekar K, designated as the District Election Officer. Furthermore, the UDF candidate Rajmohan Unnithan’s agent Muhammed Nasar Cherkalam Abdulla has also urged the assistant returning officer (ARO) in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency to change the erring machines.
Considering the submission, Justice Khana asked Senior Advocate Maninder Singh to check the allegations. The Supreme Court today resumed hearing a plea seeking 100 percent cross verification of VVPATs with EVMs. The petitioner approached the court challenging the present system of counting VVPATs in 5 randomly selected election booths per assembly.
The ECI has called the demand by the petitioner regressive and equivalent to reverting to a paper ballot system. The plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in 2023, mentioned that the current practice by the ECI to count the electronically recorded votes in all of the EVMs and cross-verify EVMs with the VVPATs in only 5 randomly selected voting booth per assembly constituency is not sufficient. The bench heard the case and posed several questions to the petitioners on Tuesday. The court also dismissed the proposal to go back to the ballot paper system.