SC pans EVM critics, asks them to remember ballot paper era when booth capturing was rampant
New Delhi, Apr 16: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deprecated criticism of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a "humongous task" and attempts should not be made to "bring down the system".
It also recalled how polling booths were captured in the era of ballot papers to manipulate election results.
The top court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking complete cross-verification of the votes cast using EVMs with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), an independent vote verification system which enables an elector to see whether his vote was cast correctly.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was critical of the argument that many European countries have gone back to ballot papers after having tried out voting machines.
"This is a humongous task. No European country can do this. You talked about Germany but what is the population there. My home state West Bengal is far more populous than Germany. We have to repose faith and trust in the electoral process. Don't try to bring down the system like this," Justice Datta told advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms'.
Bhushan had pitched for a return to ballot papers while citing the German example.
The bench said there were roughly 98 crore registered voters in India. "There will be some mismatch in vote count due to some human errors but it can be countered and checked," it said.
Justice Khanna, while referring to booth capturing in the past, said, "Mr. Bhushan, we are all in our 60s. We have seen what used to happen earlier when there were no EVMs. We don't need to tell you."
Maintaining that he is not casting any aspersion on the Election Commission or saying that EVMs have been manipulated, Bhushan said his only point is that these polling machines can be tinkered with.
Normally, human intervention in a process creates problems including bias, while machines, without any wrong human intervention, work properly and give accurate results, Justice Khanna told Bhushan.
The bench posed a barrage of questions to the Election Commission officials present in the court about the functioning of EVMs, their storage and the possibility of data manipulation.
"We want you to apprise us of each and every detail from point A to Z on the EVMs, right from their assembling to storage after the counting of votes," the bench told senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission.
Bhushan said he also wants that every voter should be allowed to collect the paper slip of his vote cast from the VVPAT machine and drop it into the ballot box. He also sought reversal of the poll panel's decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds.
He alleged that two public sector undertakings--Bharat Electronic Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECILL)--have as its directors people who are associated with ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The bench asked Singh whether it is possible to subject EVMs to technical evaluation to rule out any foul play after the counting of votes is over.
Singh urged the court to not indicate any such thing without hearing the poll panel on the issue as it would create unnecessary confusion.
"Don’t be apprehensive. We are not indicating any such thing but are only soliciting a response," Justice Khanna told Singh.
The bench also asked the poll panel to apprise it about the punishment prescribed under the law for someone who manipulates EVMs.
"If some manipulation is done, then what is the consequence? What is the punishment prescribed under the law? Tell us. This is a very serious thing because there should be some fear of the consequences," the court told Singh.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for activist Arun Kumar Agrawal, who has sought a complete count of VVPAT slips in polls, submitted there should not be even an iota of doubt about the electoral process and the Election Commission should ensure that.
He claimed after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a parliamentary committee had found discrepancies in EVM data but the Election Commission never responded to the panel.
"There are very high chances of error. We always blame the population for everything including the number of cases clogging our judicial system. We should focus on the system so that there is no iota of doubt in the mind of even a single voter," he said.
During the nearly two-hour-long hearing, several advocates appearing for different petitioners addressed the court, with some suggesting use of bar codes to reduce chances of manipulation of EVMs. One of them claimed conflict of interest on part of members of the technical committee of the election commission, saying they were the inventors and designers of the EVMs.
The hearing remained inconclusive and would resume on April 18.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls will begin on April 19.
The ADR has sought matching the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably "recorded as cast" and to ensure that the voter is able to verify through VVPAT slip that his vote, as recorded on the paper slip, has been "counted as recorded".
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SC stays CBI probe into West Bengal govt officials' role in teacher recruitment scam
New Delhi, Apr 29: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Calcutta High Court order directing the CBI to probe the role of West Bengal government officials in a teacher recruitment scam. It, however, refused to stay for now the cancellation of the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
The top court was hearing a plea by the West Bengal government against a high court order invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the School Service Commission (SSC) in state-run and state-aided schools.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, however, refused to stay the high court order cancelling the appointments and said it will hear the matter on May 6.
Observing that taking away the jobs of about 25,000 persons is a serious matter, the top court asked if it is possible to segregate the valid and invalid appointments on the basis of the material available and who the beneficiaries of the fraud are.
"We will stay the direction which says the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will undertake further investigation against officials in the state government," the bench said.
Calcutta High Court had said the CBI would undertake further investigations with regard to the persons in the state government involved in approving the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments.
If necessary, the CBI will undertake custodial interrogation of such persons involved, it had said.
Challenging the order, the state government, in its appeal filed before the top court, said the high court cancelled the appointments "arbitrarily".
"The high court failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process, leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a standstill," the plea said.
Calcutta High Court last week declared the selection process as "null and void" and directed the CBI to probe the appointment process. It also asked the central agency to submit a report within three months.
"All appointments granted in the selection processes involved being violative of articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, are declared null and void and cancelled," the high court said in its April 22 order.
The high court said those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies, appointed after the expiry of the official date of recruitment, and those who submitted blank Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets but obtained appointment to return all remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent interest per annum within four weeks.
Observing that it had given "anxious consideration to the passionate plea" that persons who obtained the appointments legally would be prejudiced if the entire selection process was cancelled, the bench said it hardly had any choice left.
The high court held that all appointments involved were violative of articles 14 (equality before law) and 16 (prohibiting discrimination in employment in any government office) of the Constitution.
"It is shocking that, at the level of the cabinet of the state government, a decision is taken to protect employment obtained fraudulently in a selection process conducted by SSC for state-funded schools, knowing fully well that, such appointments were obtained beyond the panel and after expiry of the panel, at the bare minimum," the high court had said.
It said unless "there is a deep connection between the persons perpetuating the fraud and the beneficiaries" with persons involved in the decision-making process, such action to create supernumerary posts to protect illegal appointments is "inconceivable".
The division bench had also rejected a prayer by some appellants, including the SSC, for a stay on the order and asked the commission to initiate a fresh appointment process within a fortnight from the date of the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The bench, constituted by the high court chief justice on a direction of the Supreme Court, had heard 350 petitions and appeals relating to the selection of candidates for appointment by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through the SLST-2016.
In its 282-page judgment, the high court had said retaining appointees selected through "such a dubious process" would be contrary to public interest.
