sc-rejects-plea-to-return-to-ballot-papers-on-transparency-of-vvpat-evm

The system of polling through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) cannot be pulled down without there being any substantial issue of propriety in the process, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday. Advocating caution against the perils of reverting to the traditional ballot box system.

 

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta cited the vast number of voters as key factor for dismissing the proposal as demand for 100 per cent cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs with Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs). At present, the VVPAT-EVM verification is limited to five in each assembly segment of a constituency.

 

The petitions argued in favour of going back to the ballot box system, contending that several European countries, including Germany, went back to the traditional system of casting votes.

 

But the bench seemed unconvinced.

 

“There are nearly 98 crore voters in India. And what’s the population of Germany? And how many people vote in India? 60 crore VVPAT should be tallied,” it told advocates like Prashant Bhushan, and others, who appeared for the bunch of petitioners.

The bench further remarked that the statistics shown by the petitioners show no discrepancies or irregularities in 99.9% of cases.

 

“…. Humans manipulate machines. There’s bound to be some instances of mismatch because of human errors,” added the court, asking ECI to be ready with statistics and pertinent information on the functioning of EVMs and VVPATs on the next date…. Machines without human intervention will give you correct results. It will be accurate,” it observed.

 

Justice Khanna added: “We have seen what used to happen with ballot papers in the 60s… We are all aware of the problems. It is not just booth capturing, but other problems too.”

 

The petitions argue for a more robust mechanism to ensure the accuracy of electronic voting through the VVPAT system.

 

At present, the verification process involves checking VVPAT slips from five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly constituency or segment. However, the petitions, filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal, sought a more comprehensive approach. Agarwal advocated for the counting of all VVPAT slips to ensure transparency, while the ADR’s petition focussed on enabling voters to confirm that their votes are counted as they were cast.

 

The petitions further challenged the August 2023 ECI guidelines, which only allow for sequential verification of VVPAT slips and purportedly cause an excessive delay in the counting of all VVPAT slips.

 

The bench said it would continue hearing the case on Thursday. The integration of VVPAT with EVMs gained legal prominence following a petition by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy after the 2009 general elections.