HC issues notices to EC, Centre, State, two PSUs
In a significant development, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered issuing of notices to the Election Commission of India (EC), Maharashtra State Election Commission (M-SEC) and two public sector makers of electronic voting machines (EVM) and others in a public interest litigation filed by an RTI activist.
The directions were given by Justice SS Kemkar and Justice SV Kotwal when the PIL filed by activist Manoranjan S. Roy came up for admission.
Others being served notices are the Union Home Ministry, IT Department and Maharashtra Government. The two EVM manufacturers are Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. and Bharat Electronics Ltd. The matter is expected to come up for further hearing after two weeks, according to the lawyer for Roy, Prashant Pawar of Pawar & Co.
The petitioner, among other things, had highlighted the manner in which a large number of EVMs and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) were being ordered by the EC and various SECs and that there were huge contradictions in the figures of orders and supplies made by the two manufacturers.
In recent RTI queries raised by Roy, it had been revealed how the Bengaluru-based BEL had despatched large quantities of electronic voting machines by 'hand-delivery' and 'by post' to various unidentified recipients.
BEL said it had despatched 820 balloting units (BUs) of the machines in bulk packaging, and on two occasions in April (2017) it sent 245 (VVPAT) machines 'By Hand', to certain recipients and destinations, according to the RTI replies given to Roy.
Roy told IANS that on both the occasions, BEL did not state to whom the consignments of BUs were 'posted' or from where the entire lot of the 'hand-delivered' VVPATs originated and whether they were received safely by the intended recipients.
Roy said that for the entire lot of 820 BUs sent through India Posts, there are only nine Docket Nos. assigned for the total consignment, which comprises two boxes with 50 BUs each and one box each with 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 and 210 BUs.
“This is misleading as each box has a specific size depending on the dimensions of the BUs. The BEL's reply shows the entire consignment was posted in only nine boxes, though the Indian Posts does not accept -- nor is equipped to handle -- such huge parcels,” Roy said.
BEL said on April 6 and April 10, 2017, that it delivered VVPATs in three parcels -- 65, 70 and 110, respectively - 'By Hand' and 'urgent delivery' to avoid the regular logistics route.
In March this year, Pawar & Company had filed Roy's PIL, seeking detailed investigations into the delivery of EVMs and a ban on deploying EVMs/VVPATs till the outcome of the probe.