SC seeks EC's response to PIL on access to EVMs, VVPATs
New Delhi, Sep 4: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission's response to a PIL for restricting the access to EVMs and VVPATs to security-cleared engineers of PSUs ECL and BEL.
A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan was told by petitioner Ashish Goyal about alleged security breaches in the physical handling of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) by unauthorised persons in contravention of the commission's Manual on the issue.
The petitioner sought the setting up of a high-powered committee headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge to inquire whether private persons were permitted to handle EVMs in breach of the Manual on EVMs and VVPAT, 2017, since the Assembly elections in 2014 till date.
Seeking submission of a report in the top court in this regard, the petitioner also demanded a formal inquiry into the antecedents of additional private persons permitted to have physical access to the EVMs during the Uttarakhand Assembly elections last year.
He also sought a direction to the Election Commission to urgently put in place necessary safeguards to ensure that the integrity of the EVMs is not compromised.
Contending that breach in EVMs' integrity posed a threat to the purity of the election process itself, senior counsel Kapil Sibal argued for the petitioner that Chapter 5.4 of the Manual said that the first level of checking of EVMs can be carried out only by authorised engineers of public sector undertakings Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
The petitioner referred to an EC communication dated May 27, 2017, which says that the "... EVMs are not accessible to any unauthorised person at any stage -- before, during or after the polls."
Seeking enforcement of the Manual and the poll panel's 2017 communication, Goyal pleaded that the court issue a direction to the EC to provide a list of ECL and BEL Engineers who get the security clearance to handle these EVMs to all political parties.
The petitioner also sought directions to the Election Commission for the implementation of September 2006 recommendations of an expert committee on design change and precautions pertaining to EVMs before, during and after the elections.
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LIVE | Election Results of five states 2026
New Delhi: The countdown has begun for the counting of votes for the Assembly elections in five states that have captured the attention of people across the country.
The counting of votes for the Assembly constituencies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and the Union Territory of Puducherry will begin simultaneously at 8 am, and the fate of candidates in a total of 824 constituencies will be decided shortly.
The counting of postal ballots will take place first, followed by the counting of EVM votes in several rounds.
- BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is leading in West Bengal’s Nandigram constituencyFive-state elections: Postal vote counting begins
- TMC, BJP lead in one seat each in West Bengal
- In Tamil Nadu, DMK leads in 3 constituencies, while TVK leads in 1
- UDF leads in 5 seats in Kerala, BJP in 1, LDF in 1
- BJP leads in 2 seats, AIUDF in 1 in Assam
- AINRC leads in 1 constituency in Puducherry
- TMC leads in 5 seats in West Bengal; Mamata Banerjee’s party maintains initial lead
- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin leads in Kolathur
- BJP takes early lead in Assam
- Congress-led UDF leads in Kerala
- In Tamil Nadu, TVK chief Vijay leads in the Perambur constituency, lags in Tiruchirappalli South
- BJP leads in 10 seats in Assam
- LDF candidate V.P.P. Mustafa leads in the Thrikkaripur Assembly constituency
- Out of 294 seats in West Bengal, BJP is leading in 14 seats, TMC in 12 seats, Congress in 2 seats
- Out of 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, DMK is leading in 15 seats, AIADMK is leading in 5 seats, TVK is leading in 2 seats
- Out of 126 seats in Assam, BJP is leading in 31 seats, Congress in 4 seats, AIUDF in 2 seats.
- Out of 30 seats in Puducherry, NRC+ is leading in 3 seats, Congress in 2 seats, TVK in 1 seat.
- Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury suffers a setback in theBerhampore constituency in West Bengal.
