New Delhi:
There has to be sanctity in the electoral process, the Supreme Court told the Election Commission of India today, asking the poll body to explain in detail the steps followed to ensure free and fair polls. “This is (an) electoral process. There has to be sanctity. Let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done,” the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta said.
The court is hearing petitions seeking cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with paper slips generated through the VVPAT system. Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, the poll body’s counsel, is in court to respond to the questions.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, Advocate Nizam Pasha said a voter should be allowed to take the VVPAT slip after he votes and deposit it in a ballot box. When Justice Khanna asked if such a process won’t affect the voter’s privacy, Mr Pasha replied, “Voter privacy cannot be used to defeat voter’s rights.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan then said that the light on the VVPAT machine should remain on at all times — it now stays on for about 7 seconds. “One possible solution is if they can’t change glass at this stage, at least the light should remain on at all times so I can see the slip cutting and falling. No privacy will be compromised.”
Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, also appearing for petitioners, said there should be a separate audit to add greater credibility to the counting process.
Mr Bhushan cited a report on mock poll results in Kerala where extra votes were recorded for the BJP. The court asked Mr Singh to explain this.
In his explanation of the voting process, the poll body’s counsel said the EVM’s control unit commands the VVPAT unit to print its paper slip. This slip is visible to the voter for seven seconds before it falls into a sealed box, Mr Singh said. The machines are checked before polling in the presence of engineers, he added.
When the court asked if there was any software in the printer, the poll body replied in the negative. “There is a 4 megabyte flash memory in every PAT which stores symbols,” he said.
“Returning officer prepares electronic ballot, which is loaded into symbol loading unit. It will give serial no., name of candidate and symbol. Nothing is preloaded. It’s not data, it’s image format,” he said.
When the court asked how many Symbol Loading Units are created for the polling, the poll body replied, “Normally one in a constituency. It’s in custody of Returning Officer till conclusion of poll.” The court then asked if this unit is sealed to ensure no tampering, the Election Commission replied no such process is currently in place.
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