8 Sep 2023 8:36 AM GMT
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has staunchly defended electronic voting machines (EVM) as ‘non-tamperable’, both owing to technological measures and strict administrative and security procedures designed by the commission. In a recent affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the commission has stated –
The election commission has opposed a plea seeking complete verification of EVM data against voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) records, saying that it was yet another attempt to cast doubt over the functioning of EVMs and VVPATs on ‘vague and baseless’ grounds. Their recent affidavit was filed in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by the non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms, which is currently being heard by a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna.
In their reply, the election commission has argued that counting all VVPAT paper slips manually, as suggested, would not only be labour and time-intensive, but also be prone to ‘human error’ and ‘mischief’. This would essentially be a retrogression to the paper ballot system, the commission has alleged –
Besides praying for a more robust system of cross-verification between EVM and VVPAT tallies, the petitioner has also asked for a declaration by the court that every voter has the fundamental right to verify that their vote has been ‘recorded as cast’ and ‘counted as recorded’, praying for directions to affect appropriate changes to enforce this ‘fundamental right’. No such fundamental right exists, the election commission has categorically said in its affidavit. The poll panel has also disputed the petitioner’s claim that its recent plea sought to give full effect to the purport and object of the 2013 judgement in Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India, in which the Supreme Court held ‘paper trail’ to be an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections and directed the ECI to introduce the VVPAT mechanism -
The commission has further pointed out that in 2019, in response to a ruling of the Supreme Court on a plea filed by 21 opposition leaders including former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the number of random polling stations in each assembly constituency or each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency subject to mandated verification of paper audit trail (PAT) slips was enhanced from 1 to 5. The present system of random verification of five VVPATs per assembly constituency or segment achieved a state of 'near-certainty', the commission has told the court, relying on the margin of sampling error calculated by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) -
The election commission has revealed that ballot slips of 38,156 randomly selected VVPATs have been tallied till date with the electronic counts of their control unit (CU), asserting that not a single case of transfer of vote meant for one candidate to another has been detected. “Differences in count, if any, have always been traceable to non-deletion of mock poll votes from the CU or non-removal of mock poll slips from the VVPAT,” the affidavit states. It further adds –
Last month, the Justice Khanna-led bench voiced its reservations about the non-profit’s plea. Justice Khanna asked Advocate Prashant Bhushan whether the petitioner-association was being overly suspicious. Despite encountering scepticism from the bench, the counsel pressed for more extensive cross-verification of electronic voting machines (EVM) data against voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) records, highlighting that only around two percent of EVMs were currently cross-verified. In response to this, Justice Khanna pointed out practical limitations faced by the election commission. Ultimately, the court declined to issue notice at that stage but instructed the counsel to serve a copy of the petition to the standing counsel of the Election Commission of India, before adjourning the hearing.
This week, the court reiterated its earlier concern over the Association for Democratic Reforms being ‘overly suspicious’. The court also revealed that it was not convinced of the urgency of the matter, particularly in view of the counter-affidavit filed by the election commission, while adjourning the matter until November.
The Association for Democratic Reforms, jointly with another non-profit Common Cause, had moved the Supreme Court in 2019, seeking an investigation into alleged discrepancies in the 17th Lok Sabha elections held in the same year. While this petition prayed for the EVM count to be tallied against the record of the register, the recent petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms sought a verification of EVM data against VVPAT records.
The court had issued notice in the 2019 petition and directed it to be tagged with a similar petition filed by Trinamool Congress legislator Mahua Moitra seeking the publication of details relating to voter turnout and final vote counts in the 2019 elections.
Case Details
Association of Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India & Anr. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 434 of 2023