EVMs ‘tamper-proof’: SEC tells High Court

The Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) has cleared the air over the entire controversy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The Commission claimed that EVMs are "tamper proof" and cannot be manipulated with. It made these claims in its reply filed in the Bombay High Court recently. The reply was filed in response to a petition seeking use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the upcoming Igatpuri Municipal Council elections.

The petition was filed by Sunil Khatale-Patil before a division bench of Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice Girish Kulkarni. In his petition, Khatale-Patil urged the judges to direct the Election Commission to make use of VVPATs along with EVMs in local body elections. Accordingly, the judges had asked the Election Commission to file their say. Pursuant to the orders, the Election Commission filed its reply citing local body elections in Nanded, held recently. In its reply, the Commission said, "Nearly 31 out of 37 VVPATs functioned smoothly while the units on six polling booths did not function properly due to technical issues. Technical experts found various errors in these six units."

"Accordingly, the Election Commission of India is now developing a VVPAT model, to remove the experienced technical glitches. Therefore, VVPATs cannot be used in any further elections till technical issues are removed and tested finally, to the satisfaction of all

Reply filed for plea seeking use of VVPAT in upcoming Igatpuri Municipal Council polls.

political parties and the State Election Commission," the Commission has claimed. Giving a clean chit to EVMs, the Commission further said, "Since counting of votes through EVMs at 31 booths tallied completely with the printed voter slip, generated from the VVPATs, it can thus be inferred that EVMs are totally tamper-proof."

The Commission suggested that the Maharashtra government must make "huge" capital investments, if it desires to make use of the VVPAT system in local body elections. The reply stated, "If at all it is decided to use VVPAT in local elections then the government will have to provide huge initial capital investment and recurring expenditure. Also, the Election Commission of India will have to manufacture and supply multi-post VVPATs after modifications and satisfaction of all political parties and the State Election Commission."

Having perused the reply, Justice Kemkar disposed the petition by considering the contentions of the State Election Commission. The judges however granted liberty to Khatale-Patil to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), if he desires to raise any larger issue.