Supreme Court Asks Election Commission 4 Questions about VVPATs and EVMs for Lok Sabha Elections

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta this morning asked a senior official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to be present in the court at 2 pm to answer a few queries. The queries included the installation of the microcontroller in the controlling unit or the VVPAT, whether the microcontroller is one time programmable, the availability of symbol loading units with the Election Commission, and the correct limitation period for filing an election petition.

The top court emphasized the need for factual clarifications and asked for the officer to be called at 2 pm. Previously, the bench had extensively interacted with a poll panel official to understand the functioning of EVMs.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the poll panel, had stated that EVMs are standalone machines and cannot be tampered with, although the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out. Justice Datta stressed the importance of allaying apprehensions regarding the electoral process and ensuring its sanctity.

The Supreme Court advised the petitioners against excessive suspicion, stating that not everything should be doubted and there is a need to appreciate the positive efforts of the Election Commission. The court expressed reservations about the manual counting process and emphasized the significance of the VVPAT in enabling voters to verify their votes.

The petitions, filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal, call for cross-verification of every vote, including the counting of all VVPAT slips, in order to ensure transparency and accuracy in the electoral process.