What SC has told Election Commission on EVM data (original) (raw)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission to make sure that the poll data stored in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is not deleted while the EC carries out checking and verification of the burnt memory/microcontrollers of the EVMs and VVPATs.

The apex court had ordered the EC on April 26, 2024 to give the runners-up in an election the option of having the burnt memory of 5% of the EVMs and VVPATs in an Assembly segment checked and verified in order to check for any tampering.

What has the court ordered?

While hearing a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms, on whose plea the court had given its April 2024 order, the bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta on Tuesday asked the EC to ensure that no data is deleted from the EVMs.

Arguing for ADR, advocate Prashant Bhushan said the EC only conducts mock polls to verify the EVMs and that what the petitioner wanted was an examination of the software and hardware to check for manipulation. The court asked the EC to submit an affidavit explaining the process followed for checking and verification of EVMs. The next hearing was fixed for March 3.

What is the EC’s process for checking and verification?

After the court order in April 2024, the EC came out with its SOP for checking and verification in July that year. The EC also decided to charge Rs 40,000 plus GST for each request. As per the Supreme Court order, the candidates who come second and third in any constituency can apply for checking and verification of up to 5% of the EVMs and VVPATs per Assembly segment.

The EC’s technical SOP states that a mock poll of up to 1,400 votes per machine will be conducted and the result tallied with the VVPAT slips. If the results match, the machines would be considered to have passed the test.

EC sources say the data of the EVMs and VVPATs is not deleted for 45 days as that is the period available to candidates to file an election petition. In case an election petition is filed, the relevant machines are stored and cannot be used for future elections till the case is decided. If no EP has been filed, the data is then deleted so the machines can be used in other elections. The checking and verification can only be carried out after that 45-day period is over.

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Explaining its decision to rely on a mock poll for the verification process, the EC had written in its technical SOP that there are different methods of verification of the microcontroller within laboratories, but in a public setting, it was different. “Checking and verification of any firmware burnt (fused) into the memory of a microcontroller can be verified in a public process by giving a vast number of ransom test vectors as inputs and evaluating the intended outcome (s),” the EC had written.

What have the petitioners said?

ADR, an independent elections watchdog, has argued that the SOP does not provide for actual verification of the microchips installed in the EVMs and VVPATs. They had argued that if a candidate seeks verification, then an engineer should examine the software and hardware of the EVMs.

How has the checking and verification process gone so far?

Soon after the Supreme Court order, the Lok Sabha election results were announced on June 4 and candidates had seven days to give their requests for checking and verification in writing.

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After that, the process was to start after 45 days, as that is the duration for which the EVMs and VVPATs are stored in case there is an election petition filed challenging any particular result. A total of 11 candidates applied for checking and verification of EVMs and VVPATs for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Odisha and Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. The EC said no mismatch had been found during the checking and verification process.

In all, 83 applications for checking and verification have been received so far, covering the Lok Sabha elections and all state assembly polls in 2024 (Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra), according to EC sources. No mismatch between the VVPAT and EVM count has been found so far, they said.