Plea for 100% verification with VVPAT slips: SC reserves order, says rising turnout shows people’s faith

The two-Judge bench, which included Justice Dipankar Datta, rejected an argument that “far more technologically advanced countries” had abandoned EVMs for ballot papers. “That’s not correct,” the Judges said.

“We have our own system. It’s working well, it’s doing well, why should we disparage? And knowing what has happened in the past, you know the ballot box,” Justice Khanna remarked.

Hearing the petitions on April 16, Justice Khanna had dismissed suggestions to return to the ballot paper. “Fortunately, we are now in our sixties. We have seen what used to happen earlier. Have you forgotten that? If you have forgotten that, I am sorry, I have not forgotten,” he had said.

Election duty staff starts distribution of EVM and VVPAT machines from the Election Commission’s warehouse in Ahmedabad on April 8 ahead of Lok Sabha polls. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

On Thursday, the bench posed searching questions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) representatives on the technical and other operational aspects of EVMs and VVPATs. “We would like to know how the VVPATs are initially calibrated, at what stages are the candidates or their representatives involved, and what storage or mechanism is done to ensure there is no tampering or possibility of tampering,” Justice Khanna told Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, who represented the ECI.

“What we want is that either you or the officer present should allay the apprehensions of everyone — those who are inside court, those who are outside court. Because it’s an electoral process. There has to be some sanctity. Let nobody have any apprehension that something which is not expected is being done,” said Justice Datta.

A demo VVPAT machine. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

Explaining the technical aspects, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Vyas said the EVMs comprise a ballot unit (BU), control unit (CU), and VVPAT unit. The BU has buttons against which party symbols are pasted. When a button is pressed, the unit sends a message to the CU. The VVPAT unit is alerted, and prints the slip with the serial number, name of the candidate and matching symbol, he said.

Nothing is loaded in the CU, and the only information uploaded is in the VVPATs. Roughly seven days before polls, the commissioning of the VVPATs is done. The serial number, name and symbol are uploaded, in the presence of candidates or their representatives, Vyas said, adding that all this information is already in public domain.

Apparently referring to concerns that technicians involved in the manufacturing of the machines may manipulate them, he said the manufacturer does not know which button is assigned to which party, or which machine is allotted to which constituency.

He said the machines are taken out of warehouses and checked four-six months before the polls, stored in strongrooms, sealed in the presence of representatives of recognised political parties. After the candidatures are announced, the strongrooms are opened and the machines are commissioned, he said. The candidates are allowed to randomly check 5 per cent of the machines. On the morning of polling day too, mock polling is conducted to test the machines, Vyas said.

Appearing for the petitioner, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Advocate Prashant Bhushan said there is a possibility of a malicious programme being loaded into the VVPAT flash memory. When the candidates are called for commissioning, they only see the programme being loaded and don’t actually get to know its technical aspects, he submitted.

Polling staff with EVMs leave for election duty in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh Tuesday. (PTI)

Bhushan said the rules also state that the VVPAT should have a transparent window. While the earlier design was transparent, it was changed to a dark mirrored glass around 2017, he said. An easy option would be to leave the light on so that the voter can see the VVPAT slip, he said.

Pressing for counting the VVPAT slips, he said: “It’s also a question of voter confidence in our whole democratic system. What’s the problem in doing that?”

The bench, however, said that “everything can’t be suspected”.

Opposing the petitions, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said: “This happens periodically on the eve of elections. It has an impact on voter turnout, harms democracy”.

Meanwhile, the ECI, in a statement to the court, denied a news report highlighted by Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, about a mismatch between votes polled and votes counted in 373 constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

It said the report “has not disclosed that discrepancy is with respect to live voter turnout data uploaded on ECI website during 2019 general elections. The discrepancy in voter turnout data has nothing to do with the EVM. During 2019 general elections, a mechanism was adopted to give a real-time approximation of voter turnout. Voter turnout data was published on ECI website on a real-time basis by taking inputs from presiding officers of polling stations”.

“There was no mismatch between the data of votes polled as per EVMs which is recorded in Form 17C and the data of results which is declared as per Form 20,” the ECI said.

During the pre-lunch session, Bhushan also referred to a report in a Malayalam daily about EVMs polling extra votes for the BJP during a mock poll in Kerala. The court asked the ECI to look into the matter. In the post-lunch session, the ECI informed the bench that the news report has been found to be “false” and it would submit a detailed report to the court.