The Supreme Court Bench also explained the detailed procedure to be followed while verifying EVMs and conducting mock polls.
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has assured the Supreme Court of India that data stored in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will not be deleted if a candidate seeks verification of vote counts or poll results.
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This announcement came during a hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta.
The Supreme Court Bench also explained the detailed procedure to be followed while verifying EVMs and conducting mock polls. This move aims to ensure transparency and boost public confidence in the election process.
Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), urged the Court that the Election Commission must frame a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for verification of EVMs. He argued that the current procedure does not comply with the earlier Supreme Court judgement of 2024 in the EVM-VVPAT case.
The Bench observed that the ECI has filed an affidavit, confirming that it will no longer delete data on EVMs if a candidate requests verification.
“in case any candidate wants to conduct mock polls, he may make a request for erasure of data in the EVMs which will be after downloading the data stored. The download shall be certified by the engineers. Thereafter data of mock polls can be downloaded and again verified by the BEL and ECIL.”
The Election Commission also informed the Court that it plans to amend the existing technical SOP to reflect these changes.
The Supreme Court accepted the ECI’s submission and added that verification of EVMs will be carried out only by engineers from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) — the two official EVM manufacturing companies.
These engineers will also be responsible for issuing certificates to confirm that:
- The microcontroller and software loaded in the EVMs have not been tampered with.
- The integrity of the machine is intact.
The Bench laid down a clear process for candidates who wish to conduct mock polls using the same EVMs.
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Last year, in the case of Association for Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court had ruled that candidates who come 2nd or 3rd in the election results have the right to seek verification of the burnt memory or microcontroller in 5% of the EVMs per assembly constituency or assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.
Furthermore, the Court directed that candidates who finish second or third in the election results have the right to request verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5% of the EVMs per assembly constituency or assembly segment. This verification is to be conducted by engineers from the EVM manufacturers and must be requested within seven days of the declaration of results .
The Court had also stated that this verification must be done by the engineers of BEL or ECIL, adding another layer of accountability and transparency.
Case Name : ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS Versus ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA AND ANR.| MA 40/2025 in W.P.(C) No. 434/2023 and connected matters
