In a significant development, the Supreme Court today rejected the pleas seeking 100% cross-verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) data with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records.
All such petitions stand set aside.
The verdict was delivered by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta.
Hoewever the ECI has been asked to examine the suggestion for a electronic machine for vote counting the paper slips and whether along with the symbol there can be a bar code for each party.
Further it has been ordered that burnt memory semicontroller in 5% of the EVMs, that is the Control Unit, Ballot Unit and the VVPAT, per assembly segment of the Parliamentary constituency, shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from the manufacturers of the EVM post the announcement of results on a written request made by candidates who are at places 2 and 3 behind the highest polled candidate. Such candidates or their representatives shall identify the EVMs by the polling station or the serial number. All candidates and their representatives shall have the option to remain present at the time of verification. Such a request should be made within 7 days of the declaration of the results. The District Election Officer, in consultation with the team of engineers, shall certify the authenticity and intactness of the burnt memory microcontroller. After the verification process is conducted, the actual cost or the expenses for the said verification will be notified by the ECI and the candidate making the said request will make payment of the said expenses. Expenses will be refunded in case the EVMs are found to be tampered.
