The Supreme Court Today (April 24th) directed an Election Commission official to appear before it to address concerns about electronic voting machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The opposition has raised questions about EVM manipulation, but the Court rejected the idea of returning to paper ballots, emphasizing the importance of the electoral process in India.
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![[BREAKING] "Source Code for EVMs Should Never Be Disclosed": SC Asks EC Official to Appear at 2pm](https://lawchakra.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-6.avif)
NEW DELHI: A 2 judge-bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, reserved the order on April 18.The petitioners have sought a complete cross-verification of votes cast using Electronic Voter Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
The Supreme Court has issued a directive for an Election Commission (EC) official to appear before it at 2 PM Today.
SC bench seeks following clarifications from poll panel
- is the micro-controller installed inside the controlling unit or VVPAT
- is the micro-controller one-time programmable
- how many Symbol Loading Units are available
- and the reason behind the increase of period of data storage (from 30 to 45 days).
On senior advocate Santhosh Paul’s statement that there is a source code for EVM that is not disclosed, Justice Khanna says:
“the code must never be disclosed.”
“If the code is disclosed, it will be misused”
-Justice Khanna added.
The Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc has repeatedly questioned the EVMs, alleging that the machines can be “manipulated” to change results, a charge that the Election Commission has always denied. The opposition has made repeated representations to ECI on the issue of voting machines.
During the hearing, the bench also observed how-
“there has to be sanctity in the electoral process.”
![[BREAKING] "Source Code for EVMs Should Never Be Disclosed": SC Asks EC Official to Appear at 2pm](https://i0.wp.com/images.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2017/08/GettyImages-695866714.jpg?w=820&ssl=1)
“Let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done,”
–it stressed.
A voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verifiable paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results.
It contains the name of the candidate (for whom vote has been cast) and symbol of the party/individual candidate.
During the hearing, the bench rejected the demand to return to ballot papers, observing that the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system.”
When one of the petitioners pointed to European nations that have reverted to ballot paper, including Germany, Justice Dutta rejected the comparison saying that Germany’s population is less than the population of his home state (West Bengal) alone.
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on VVPAT
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