CJI sends ex-minister’s plea on EVMs to another Bench

Former Haryana minister Karan Singh Dalal’s petition seeking a direction to the Election Commission to put in place a policy for verification of the original burnt memory/micro-controller of the four components of EVMs will be heard by a Bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta in the week commencing on January 20.

Dalal's petition seeking EVM verification policy in terms of the court’s April 26, 2024, verdict in Association for Democratic Reforms case came up for hearing on Friday before a Bench led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, which said it should go to Justice Datta’s Bench as it had previously heard a petition on the issue. Justice Datta was also on the CJI Khanna-led Bench that delivered the April 26 verdict on the issue.

On behalf of the EC, senior counsel Maninder Singh opposed the petition. Senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who represented the petitioners, wanted the CJI to hear the matter but Justice Khanna didn’t agree.

Earlier, a Bench led by Justice Vikram Nath, on December 13, said the matter should go to the Bench (of CJI) that rejected the demand for re-introduction of paper ballots. It had dismissed PILs seeking return to the paper ballot system or a 100% cross-verification of votes cast through EVMs with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips.

It had opened a window for unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places by allowing them to seek verification of microcontroller chips embedded in 5 per cent EVMs per Assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.

It had mandated that 5 per cent of the EVMs in every Assembly constituency should undergo verification by engineers from EVM manufacturers after the results were announced.

The petitioners, however, alleged that the EC failed to issue any such policy, leaving the procedure for burnt memory verification unclear.