SC refers plea for verifying Haryana poll EVMs to CJI

The Supreme Court on Friday said the petition seeking a policy for verification of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the recent Haryana Assembly elections should go to the Bench that rejected the demand for re-introduction of paper ballots.

“Why doesn’t this matter go before the same Bench?” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Punjab Varale told senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who represented the petitioner. As Sankaranarayanan said the April judgment was on petitions over EVMs, the Bench said, “That is what I am saying. It (plea) should go before the same Bench.” While hearing a petition filed by former Haryana minister and five-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal and Lakhan Kumar Singla, a candidate in the Haryana poll, seeking verification of EVMs used in the elections, Justice Nath directed that the matter be placed before CJI Sanjiv Khanna for assigning to an appropriate Bench.

“To our understanding, the relief claimed by means of this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution would require interpretation or modification or implementation of the directions issued by this court vide judgment dated April 26, 2024,” it said.

Dalal and Singla secured the second-highest votes in their respective constituencies and sought a direction to the Election Commission (EC) to implement a protocol for examining the original “burnt memory” or microcontroller of the four components of the EVM—the control unit, ballot unit, VVPAT and symbol loading unit.

The petitioners, who have filed separate petitions challenging the results before the Punjab and Haryana HC, urged the SC to direct the EC to conduct the verification exercise within eight weeks. They have sought compliance of the top court’s April 26 verdict in ‘Association for Democratic Reforms versus Union of India’.

The Supreme Court had on April 26 dismissed PILs seeking return to the paper ballot system or a 100% cross-verification of votes cast through EVMs with VVPAT slips even as it issued certain directions to the EC to strengthen the current EVM system.

Giving the thumbs up to the system in the midst of the 2024 LS elections, a Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna had said, “EVMs offer significant advantages. They have effectively eliminated booth capturing by restricting the rate of vote casting to four votes per minute. EVMs have eliminated invalid votes, which were a major issue with paper ballots and had often sparked disputes during the counting process.”