Supreme Court Issues Notice to Election Commission on EVM Votes Discrepancies

Supreme Court Issues Notice to Election Commission on EVM Votes Discrepancies

While this crucial EVM case to ensure free and fair elections should have been decided before the commencement of the Lok Sabha election, the Supreme Court has unnecessarily delayed it.

By Rakesh Raman

After repeatedly neglecting the issue of electronic voting machine (EVM) manipulations in Indian elections, the Supreme Court of India has willy-nilly accepted a petition that seeks to streamline the EVM voting.

There have been numerous complaints about the misuse of EVMs in Indian elections. It is alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi manipulates EVMs to win certain key state elections and Lok Sabha elections. 

However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Supreme Court of India have always arbitrarily ignored the complaints and petitions about EVM manipulation without any investigation.

Now the top court issued a notice on April 1, 2024 to the ECI to respond to a petition which demands the counting of all (100%) Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections. At present, the verification happens for only 5% randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.

[ Digital Microsite Explains the EVM Concerns in Indian Elections ]

According to a LiveLaw news report of April 1, a Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta passed the order, tagging the petition with another plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking similar reliefs.

The petition refutes the ECI claims that the VVPAT counting will cause delays in the declaration of election results and the petitioners contend that the counting for an entire assembly constituency can be done in a few hours.

Meanwhile, the ECI – which works as an extended arm of the Modi regime – has decided to persist with EVMs in the upcoming Lok Sabha election which is scheduled to begin from April 19. 

Instead of seriously addressing the question about EVM manipulation at a press conference on March 16, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar recited a vulgar poem to accuse the complainants.

As ECI bureaucrats apparently collude with the government to hold elections opaquely, in order to influence the voters the ECI puts a baseless message under every YouTube video that discusses the issue of EVMs. Without any substantiation of its claims, the ECI message says that the EVMs are safe. 

It is argued in the petition that the government spent nearly Rs. 5,000 crore on buying about 24 lakh (2.4 million) VVPATs, but the VVPAT slips of only about 20,000 VVPATs are verified. In the current system, the voters are not able to verify their votes while there are numerous discrepancies between the EVM and VVPAT vote count.

The petitioners demand that the VVPAT slips should be handed over to the voters who should drop them in a physical box and these slips should be counted manually to declare the results for each constituency.

As most citizens oppose EVMs, in an ongoing RMN Foundation Poll, 89% respondents say that they want elections in India to be held on ballot papers instead of EVMs. Only 9% want elections on EVMs and 2% neither like ballot papers nor EVMs.

Although a handful of citizens are holding some sporadic protests in Delhi and a few other cities against EVMs, it is unlikely that elections will be held on ballot papers. 

Meanwhile, a comprehensive digital microsite explains the concerns and possibilities of deception in the use of EVMs in elections.

The next date of hearing on the EVM petition is likely to be May 17, 2024. While this crucial EVM case to ensure free and fair elections should have been decided before the commencement of the Lok Sabha election on April 19, the Supreme Court has unnecessarily delayed it, as the court judges cannot dare to take any decision that may displease their boss PM Modi.

Therefore, in all probability, the Lok Sabha election will be held on EVMs and Modi’s BJP will win to form the government again.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.