Top court seeks EC response on plea alleging EVM tampering

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Election Commission (EC) on a petition seeking examination by technical experts for signs of alleged tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the recent polls.

A bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar issued a notice to the poll panel, asking it to respond to the allegation that no electronic and software test of the EVMs has been conducted since they were introduced in India.

The petition filed in public interest by advocate ML Sharma raised concerns that a tampered EVM could be used for “vote stealing” by changing voting numbers in favour of a political party for grabbing power.

India’s EVMs are developed by the ECI in partnership with two government-owned companies — Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

EVMs were first introduced in assembly elections in 1998.

Though the companies are owned by the Indian government, they are not under the administrative control of the EC, but are vendors that are attempting to market their EVMs globally for profit seeking, the petition said.

Sharma claimed the Election Commission admitted that EVMs are tamper-proof only till their technical, mechanical and software details remain a secret.

Seventy-one EVMs have been stolen since 2009, Sharma said, adding that some people have figured out a way to hack into the current EVMs wirelessly.

Sharma has also sought a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to register an FIR to investigate alleged tempering of the EVMs for “vested interest by the political party”.

He further claimed that the authorities have not complied with the 2013 Supreme Court order to use VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) machines for election.

The bench, also comprising justice DY Chandrachud and justice SK Kaul, however, declined to issue notice to the Centre and the CBI.