CJI Khanna Says “EVM Verification Plea To Be Heard By Another SC Bench”

EVM Verification Plea

The Supreme Court of India on Friday has announced that the plea seeking a policy for the verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be heard by a bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta in January 2025.

The plea, filed by former Haryana minister and five-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal along with Lakhan Kumar Singla, will be taken up during the week beginning January 20, 2025. The petition is centered on the implementation of a procedure to verify EVMs, following concerns raised by the petitioners.

Earlier, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had referred the matter to the bench led by Justice Datta for further hearing. This is the latest in a series of legal proceedings regarding EVM verification, including an earlier ruling in April where the Supreme Court dismissed calls to return to paper ballots.

In that April ruling, the court had rejected concerns about EVM manipulation, deeming the suspicions as “unfounded.” It emphasized that EVMs were secure and eliminated the risks of booth capturing and bogus voting. However, the Court did allow for a limited verification process, permitting unsuccessful candidates who finished second or third in an election to request the verification of microcontroller chips in five percent of EVMs per assembly constituency, subject to a written request and a fee.

Dalal and Singla, both of whom secured the second-highest number of votes in their respective constituencies, have now petitioned for the enforcement of the Court’s earlier ruling. They are seeking a directive for the Election Commission (EC) to implement a protocol for examining the original “burnt memory” or microcontroller in four key EVM components: the control unit, ballot unit, VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail), and symbol loading unit.

The petitioners argue that despite the Court’s directive, the Election Commission has not issued a clear policy or procedure for burnt memory verification, leaving the process vague.

They assert that the current standard operating procedure only involves basic diagnostic tests and mock elections, without addressing the verification of burnt memory for potential tampering.

Dalal and Singla have made it clear that their petition does not challenge the election results but instead calls for the establishment of a comprehensive and secure mechanism for EVM verification. In their plea, they have requested the Supreme Court to direct the Election Commission to conduct the verification process within eight weeks.

Meanwhile, separate election petitions challenging the results of the Haryana elections are pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The recent Haryana elections saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) securing 48 out of the 90 assembly seats.