SC Seeks EC Response Over Tampering Concerns: ‘Ensure EVM Data Not Erased Immediately’

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission of India’s response on the procedure adopted over the plea requesting for verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The bench led by the Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna asked ECI to file a response (affidavit) by March 3. The response should include an explanation of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) adopted by the ECI for handling the EVMs.

The bench also sought clarification from ECI on contention of petitioner that data was erased and reloaded.

The bench noted that the EVM data should not be immediately wiped out and that was not the intent of the earlier judgment.

The top court said that ECI should also respond to the demand by petitioner-Sarv Mitter, a losing Congress candidate in haryana polls, that an engineer should verify that microcontroller, burnt memory have not been tampered with.

The matter will be heard again by the Supreme Court during the week beginning March 3.

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