Supreme Court Directs CJI to Consider Congress Leader's Request for EVM Verification in Haryana Elections
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New Delhi, Dec 13 (NationPress) A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the apex court's registry to present a petition filed by a Congress leader to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for appropriate action concerning the verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) utilized during the Haryana Assembly elections.
The bench, consisting of Justices Vikram Nath and P.B. Varale, expressed that the case should be referred to the same bench that had issued directives regarding EVMs in April.
They indicated that the current petition, which calls for instructions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to establish a protocol for inspecting and verifying the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the four components of the EVM, pertains to interpreting and executing the earlier Supreme Court ruling. Hence, the registry should present the documents to the CJI, who manages the roster, to determine whether the petition should be scheduled for the previous bench.
To uphold the integrity of the election process nationwide, a bench led by Justices Sanjiv Khanna (currently CJI) and Dipankar Datta had, in April, mandated the inspection and verification of the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5 percent of EVMs for potential tampering or alterations upon a written request from candidates who received the second and third highest votes in an election.
The court specified that this verification should be conducted by a team of engineers from the EVM manufacturers, allowing candidates and their representatives the option to be present during the proceedings.
The recent petition, submitted by Karan Singh Dalal, a former five-time MLA, asserts that the ECI has failed to provide a procedure for examining and verifying the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the four EVM components (Control Unit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT, and Symbol Loading Unit) as per the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The petition requests that the electoral body lay out a memorandum for checking and verifying the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the four EVM components.
Additionally, it seeks that this verification process be completed within eight weeks and applicable to EVM checking and verification forms submitted to the ECI on October 14.
The petition argues that the issues raised necessitate a decisive resolution by the apex court due to their significant public importance and implications nationwide.
"The matter impacts the functionality of democracy within the country and elections occurring in various states, thus requiring urgent and authoritative resolution," it stated.
The lack of a verification procedure for burnt memory to check for tampering indicates a reluctance from the ECI to allow scrutiny of the original burnt memory microcontroller, as claimed in the petition.
