EVM-VVPAT Case: Can't Control Election Or Dictate ECI Functioning

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it is not the controlling authority for elections and cannot dictate the functioning of the Election Commission of India, a constitutional authority. The top court’s comments came while it was hearing petitions seeking directions on 100 percent cross-checking of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data against Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records. The court has reserved its judgment as of now.

The Supreme Court’s remarks came hours after it issued a host of queries to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the functioning of EVMs and VVPAT. Deputy Election Commissioner Nilesh Kumar Vyas appeared before the top court on Wednesday to issue clarifications on the apex court’s questions.

Answering the apex court’s query regarding micro-controllers, the Deputy Election Commissioner said, “The micro-controllers are one-time programmable. Each of the three units – CU (controlling unit), BU (balloting unit) and VVPAT – have their own micro-controllers, which cannot be accessed physically. The one-time prgramme is burnt into them.”

Further while responding to concerns raised by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner — Association for Democratic Reforms, the court said, “If you are prejudiced about a thought-process, then we cannot help you… we are not here to change your thought process.”

Earlier in the day, the top court while hearing a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally VVPAT slips with votes cast through EVMs during the elections raised several “technical questions” and asked an Election Commission officer to be present in the court to solve the queries.