The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has filed writ petitions with the Madras High Court, addressing concerns related to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The DMK alleges in its petition that the presence of a printer between the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit in the EVMs compromises the integrity of the data fed to the Control Unit.
Chennai: On Tuesday (2nd April): In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, DMK, submitted a writ petition to the Madras High Court concerning electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The DMK alleges in its petition that the presence of a printer between the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit in the EVMs compromises the integrity of the data fed to the Control Unit.
They argue that such a connection violates the rules outlined in the Representation of People Act, 1951, and neither the 1961 Rules permit a direct connection between the printer and the Control Unit. The party also asserted the absence of a procedure in case of a mismatch in Form 17C within the current scheme.
“The petition expresses concern that the Election Commission of India is overseeing this matter without adequate oversight and transparency,” the document stated.
The petition expresses concerns about the Election Commission of India (ECI) governing this aspect without sufficient transparency. It argues that, given the complexities associated with EVM machines, the decision-making process of the ECI should not solely determine this matter.
The petition was filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Agrawal and presented through advocate Neha Rathi.
Additionally, the Supreme Court issued a notice on Monday (1st April) to the Election Commission of India and the Centre in response to a petition that seeks the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections.
The petition challenges the ECI’s guideline of verifying only five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.
The petition argued that conducting simultaneous verification and deploying additional officers for counting in each assembly constituency would enable complete VVPAT verification within 5-6 hours.
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The petition further states that despite the government spending approximately Rs 5000 crores on the purchase of nearly 24 lakh VVPATs, only around 20,000 VVPAT slips are currently being verified. It seeks a direction for the ECI to cross-verify the count in EVMs with the votes recorded by voters through VVPATs by counting all VVPAT paper slips.
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