Indian-origin student SC rejects request

University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote to the ‘Prince.’

“No force was used by Public Safety officers when conducting the arrests, which occurred without resistance,” Morrill added.

Students face arrest and being barred from campus if they refuse to stop after a warning, according to a campus-wide message from Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun on Wednesday morning.

Urvi, a first-year PhD student, called the arrest “violent” and said zip ties were put around their wrists.

“They’ve been evicted from their houses and were given under five minutes to get their stuff,” Urvi said.

Commenting on the campus protests across the US, India on Thursday said in every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety.

“We have seen reports on the matter and have been following related events. In every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad,” he said at his weekly briefing. and the checks as well as empirical data, ensure its meaningful

exercise,” it said.

The court did, however, pass two directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard. The first was that after completing the loading of symbols into the machine, the SLU, or symbol loading unit, should be sealed and stored for at least 45 days.

Specifically, the apex court said: “On completion of the symbol loading process in the VVPATs undertaken on or after May 1, 2024, the symbol loading units shall be sealed and secured in a container. The candidates or their representatives shall sign the seal. The sealed containers, containing the symbol loading units, shall be kept in the strong room along with the EVMs at least for a period of 45 days post the declaration of results. They shall be opened, examined and dealt with as in the case of EVMs.”

The second was that the burnt memory in five per cent of the EVMs, that is, the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT, per Assembly constituency/Assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency must be checked by a team of engineers — after results are declared — if candidates make such a request.

This request — which can be made by candidates placing second and third in the election — must be made within seven days of the declaration of results, the court said.

The expenses for this verification will have to be borne by the candidate, the court also said. The cost will, however, be refunded if the EVM is found to have been tampered with.

The Supreme Court also suggested the ECI explore the possibility of using a machine to count VVPAT slips. Currently, VVPAT slips of five randomly selected EVMs in every Assembly segment are verified.

Rejecting the allegation of reprogramming and hacking of EVMs by petitioners including the NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’, the bench said: “To us, it is apparent that a number of safeguards and protocols with stringent checks have been put in place.

Data and figures do not indicate artifice and deceit. Reprogramming

by flashing, even if we assume is remotely possible, is inhibited by the strict control and checks put in place.”

The VVPAT is an independent system attached to the EVM that allows voters to check if their votes were cast as intended.

When a vote is cast, a slip is printed containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate, and this is shown to the voter — from behind a transparent screen — for seven seconds, after which the machine stores it in a sealed box.

In the event of alleged discrepancies, the paper slips can be cross-checked against the votes recorded electronically to see if the declared result is, in fact, valid.

During the hearings, the poll panel explained that there is a 4MB flash memory in each VVPAT machine which stores the party symbols. This unit, or the SLU, will be kept in locked storerooms with the EVMs, the court said.

An EVM has two units — the control unit and the voting unit. These are linked by a cable. The control unit is with the polling officer while the voting unit is kept where people cast their votes and is usually covered on all sides for privacy. Each major component of the EVM has its own microchip.

Each microchip is a one-time programmable, or masked, chip, which cannot be overwritten, meaning the preloaded software cannot be reprogrammed in a particular manner.

Also, all EVMs are stand-alone machines that are not remotely via any network and are not connected to any external devices. There is also no operating system, or OS, and, therefore, “absolutely no chance of programming EVMs to select a particular candidate or party”.

The bunch of petitions before the court had sought a direction to cross-verify every vote cast on EVMs with paper slips generated by the VVPAT system.

The court earlier said it was not the controlling authority for elections and could not dictate the functioning of the poll body, a constitutional authority. It had also wondered if it can act on mere suspicion.