On Supreme Court order, Election Commission tells CEOs to secure symbol units for 45 days after results

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, May 1

Almost a week after the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to “seal and secure” the symbol loading unit (SLU) for 45 days after the declaration of the election results, the poll body on Thursday introduced a new protocol for handling and storage of these SLUs.

The ECI has directed all state chief electoral officers to create necessary infrastructure and provisions to implement the new protocols for handling and storage of the SLUs. “As mandated by the Supreme Court, the revised protocols are applicable in all cases of completion of the symbol loading process in the VVPATs undertaken on or after May 1, 2024,” the Election Commission said.

About symbol units

• Symbol loading units or SLUs are small devices that load information of candidates into VVPAT machines
• So far, only EVMs and VVPAT slips were stored for 45 days after the election results
• In these 45 days, people can file a petition in HC concerned challenging the election
• But the Supreme Court has now told state CEOs to secure the SLUs too for same period

Before the Supreme Court order, the SLUs were handed over to local poll officials by engineers of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), the two PSUs that manufacture electronic voting machines (EVMs).

In an unprecedented direction, the apex court had on April 26 issued directions to seal and store SLUs and also paved the way for verification of micro-controllers embedded in the EVMs on the request of the candidates who stand second and third in the elections. The SLU uploads the name and symbol of the candidates contesting on a particular seat on VVPAT or paper trail machines.

So far, the EVMs and VVPAT slips were stored for 45 days after the results. In these 45 days following the declaration of an election result, people could file a petition in the high concerned court challenging the election. The EVM and VVPAT slips can be called by the court while hearing the plea.

The top court had said last week that SLUs should be sealed and stored soon after the symbol loading process for a seat is completed. It had further directed that they must be stored for 45 days after the declaration of results to facilitate their examination in case a poll result is challenged in court.

In other words, an SLU which has been used for loading symbols on VVPATs on one seat cannot be used again for other seats. Therefore, in such a scenario, the ECI will require more number of SLUs to implement Supreme Court’s direction. These directions were given by the Supreme Court last week while rejecting the plea for 100 per cent verification of VVPATs slips against the EVM count.

Introduced simultaneously along with VVPATs, the SLUs are used for loading the symbol of the candidate on the VVPAT.