On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two concurring verdicts in the matter.
Justice Khanna said the court had rejected all the petitions, including those seeking to resort back to ballot papers in elections.
Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Khanna said that the court had comprehensively discussed the protocols and technical aspects and had hence rejected the request for 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.
“One suggestion which the Election Commission of India can examine would be whether there can be electronic machines for counting paper slips and whether there can be a bar code along with the symbols as regards which party,” he added.
The court also gave two directions: one is that after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and stored for at least 45 days.
“We have given two directions. One direction is after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit should be sealed. The SLU should be stored at least for a period of 45 days. The burnt memory in the microcontroller EVM shall be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results on a request by candidates in serial number 2 and 3, such a request to be made within 7 days after the declaration of results.
"The expenses for the verification (of the program) are to be borne by the candidates making the request. In case the EVM is found to be tampered with, the expenses will be refunded," said the Supreme Court.
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