Supreme Court notice to Centre, Election Commission on EVM ‘tampering’

EVM tampering: The Supreme Court bench said it was mindful of the fact that every technology could be hacked or tampered with, but there had to be some scientific material to show the vulnerability of a machine.

As the BSP withdrew its plea for setting aside all recent Assembly polls where EVMs were used without paper trails, the Supreme Court issued notices to the central government and the Election Commission (EC) on a PIL filed by the political party, which has maintained that machines could be hacked and tampered with. A bench led by Justice J Chelameswar sought responses from the government and EC, and fixed the matter for hearing on May 8. During the hearing, senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for the BSP, told the bench that the use of EVMs without voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) raises a serious doubt about the accuracy of voting, and paper trail was required so that a voter can get feedback on the vote cast by him.

“There is no way a voter can verify as to whether the vote cast by him has gone to the right candidate. Without a paper trail, there is no way to verify it. In EVMs, a voter is only pressing button and does not know whether the machine is recording his voting correctly or not,” he said. The lawyer read out from a Supreme Court judgment in 2013 wherein EC was asked to introduce VVPAT in a phased manner.

The bench said it was mindful of the fact that every technology could be hacked or tampered with, but there had to be some scientific material to show the vulnerability of a machine. About the BSP’s prayer in the petition to declare recent Assembly polls as null and void because VVPAT was not used, the bench asked Chidambaram whether the party had raised this issue before the elections.

Chidambaram responded that they would not press for this prayer and withdraw it right away. The court said that it would examine only the questions of law and no other controversy. At the fag end of the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the apex court that the Congress would also want to intervene in the matter, and was filing an impleadment application. The bench allowed the intervention.