Supreme Court Rejects All Petitions Seeking 100% Verification of EVM-VVPAT

Supreme Court on Friday, April 26, rejected all the petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

The Supreme Court said it has given two directions. One direction is that after the symbol loading process is completed, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and stored for at least 45 days.

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“We have given two directions. One direction is that after the completion of the symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit should be sealed. The SLU should be stored for at least 45 days. The burnt memory in the microcontroller EVM shall be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results on a request by candidates in serial numbers 2 and 3, such a request to be made within 7 days after the declaration of results," the apex court said.

Supreme Court dismisses All Petitions

Supreme Court rejects all the petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. pic.twitter.com/z3KEvhUaAP

— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2024

The two-judge bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta delivered a unanimous verdict. Supreme Court says it's has given two directions -- one direction is after the completion of symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and they should be stored at least for a period of 45 days.

Second direction issued by the apex court is there will be option for candidates to get the microcontroller program of EVMs to be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results, such a request to be made by the candidate within seven days after the declaration of results.

NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and others were among the petitioners in the case. During the hearing on April 24, the apex court had said the court can not "control the elections" or issue directions simply because doubts have been raised about the efficacy of the polling machines. The batch of petitions alleged that EVMs can be manipulated to influence the results.