SC seeks clarification from poll body on EVM-VVPAT verification row, asks officer to be present in court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked for some clarification from the Election Commission in a matter related to the 100 per cent verification of electronic voting machine (EVM) votes with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slip. The bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta has asked an officer of the poll body to be present in the top court at 2 pm today. 

"We just wanted 3-4 clarifications. Factually, we should correct. One is, is the micro controller installed in the controlling unit or in the VVPAT? There seems to be indication, we were under the impression that the microcontroller is in the Control Unit. We were told that VVPAT has a flash memory," Justice Sanjiv Khanna was quoted as saying by LiveLaw. 

He further asked whether the microcontroller installed is one-time programmable one and how many Symbol Loading Units are available. He further asked: "Fourth thing is, it was said limitation for election petition is 30 days and hence the data was stored for 45 days. But as per RP Act, the limitation period is 45 days. So the period for storage may have to be correspondingly increased?" The top court also sought a clarification on whether only the Control Unit is sealed or the VVPAT is kept separately. 

One of the petitioners is the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which has challenged the ECI's decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with opaque glass. The ADR wants the count in EVMs to match votes that have been verifiably recorded and to ensure that voters can verify their votes through the VVPAT slip.

The Supreme Court had earlier deprecated criticism of EVMs and calls for reverting to ballot papers. The VVPAT is an independent vote verification system that allows voters to verify whether their votes have been cast correctly.

The INDIA bloc of the opposition has demanded 100% counting of VVPATs to increase public confidence in EVMs. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections 2024 began on April 19 and the second phase is scheduled for April 26. Counting of votes is scheduled on June 4.