The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission of India's response on the pleas seeking verification of the burnt memory and symbol loading units in EVMs in compliance of its judgement.
A special bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta asked the poll panel to refrain from erasing or reloading data during the verification process.
The pleas sought a direction to the poll panel to check and verify burnt memory/micro-controllers and the symbol loading unit (SLU) of electronic voting machines (EVM).
The bench asked the poll panel to file its response within 15 days and explain the procedure adopted and posted the matter in the week commencing March 3.
Also read: EVMs are not hackable, tampering allegations baseless: CEC
The bench issued notices to the poll panel on the interim application filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and a losing candidate Sarv Mitter, represented by senior advocate Devadatt Kamat.
The top court, in its judgement of April 26, last year, rejected the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system, saying the polling devices were "secured" and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.
It, however, opened a window for aggrieved unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in poll results and allowed them to seek verification of micro-controller chips embedded in 5 per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.
The top court directed that from May 1, last year, the symbol loading units should be sealed and secured in a container and stored in a strongroom along with the EVMs for a minimum of 45 days post-declaration of results.
ADR in a fresh plea, said the standard operating procedure of the poll panel for verification of the EVMs was not in accordance with the 2024 judgement passed on its petition in the EVM-VVPAT case.
On Tuesday, the bench asked the poll panel on the erasure and reloading of polling data.
The bench said the judgement did not mandate such actions but merely required verification of the EVMs by an engineer of the manufacturing company.
“What we intended was that, if after the polls somebody asks, the engineer should come and certify that, according to him, in their presence, there is no tampering in any of the burnt memory or microchips. That’s all. Why do you erase the data?” asked the CJI.
It underscored the need to verify the symbol loading unit, a critical component of the EVM infrastructure, to maintain transparency in the electoral process.
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