Plea in Supreme Court seeks review of EVM VVPAT verdict
New Delhi, May 13: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of its April 26 judgement by which it had rejected the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system and the complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
The review petition was filed by Arun Kumar Agrawal, who had filed the PIL on the issue earlier, through lawyer Neha Rathi.
The review plea filed on May 10 said, "There are mistakes and errors apparent on the face of the impugned order..., and as such there are sufficient reasons which require review of the impugned order/judgment...
"The petitioner respectfully seeks review on the following issues as have been dealt with in judgment dated April 26, 2024: i) Feasibility of counting of all VVPAT paper slips in terms of time to be taken and additional manpower, ii) Vulnerability of SLU (symbol loading units) and iii) Percentage of VVPAT slips counted for tallying with EVM votes after Chandrababu Naidu...Judgment."
The plea dealt with the feasibility of counting of all VVPAT paper slips in terms of time to be taken and additional manpower and referred to the relevant portion of the judgement.
"During the course of hearing, it was suggested that instead of physically counting the VVPAT slips, they can be counted by a counting machine. This suggestion, including the suggestion that bar-coding of the symbols loaded in the VVPATs may be helpful in machine counting, may be examined by the ECI," the top court had said in the judgement.
Seeking physical counting, the plea said the counting of all VVPAT slips can be done “accurately with a fraction of the employees and at a fraction of cost and within five to eight hours”.
It said the VVPAT paper is of the same size as the thermal print out received when a credit or debit card is swiped on making a payment.
"The counting of the slips after they have been sorted candidate-wise, is in fact easier than counting normal paper because the VVPAT paper slip is sightly curled on account of being thermally printed from a roll. The curling makes the picking up of the paper slip from the surface of a table easy.
"Each slip can be counted while being picked to make bundles of 25 slips as mandated under instructions given in the ECI’s Manual on EVM and VVPAT, 2023," the plea said.
It said EVMs do not allow voters to verify that their votes have been accurately recorded.
"Furthermore, given their very nature, EVMs are especially vulnerable to malicious changes by insiders such as designers, programmers, manufacturers, maintenance technicians, etc. Therefore, in light of the above there are apparent errors on the face of the impugned order dated April 26, 2024 and the impugned judgment, is liable to be reviewed," it said.
On April 26, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta had termed the suspicion of manipulation of the EVMs "unfounded" and trashed the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system.
The bench had said that the polling devices were "secure" and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.
However, the judgement had opened a window for aggrieved unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in poll results and allowed them to seek verification of micro-controller chips embedded in five per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.
It had directed that from May 1, the symbol loading units should be sealed and secured in a container and stored in a strongroom along with the EVMs for a minimum period of 45 days post-declaration of results.
By the judgement, the top court had dismissed the PILs which had also sought a direction to return to the ballot paper system.
"A voting mechanism must uphold and adhere to the principles of security, accountability, and accuracy. An over complex voting system may engender doubt and uncertainty, thereby easing the chances of manipulation. In our considered opinion, the EVMs are simple, secure and user-friendly. The voters, candidates and their representatives, and the officials of the ECI are aware of the nitty-gritty of the EVM system. They also check and ensure righteousness and integrity," the bench had said.
It had said the possibility of hacking or tampering with the agnostic firmware in the burnt memory of EVMs to tutor or favour results is "unfounded".
"Accordingly, the suspicion that the EVMs can be configured or manipulated for repeated or wrong recording of vote(s) to favour a particular candidate should be rejected," the bench had said.
It had said the incorporation of the VVPAT, an independent vote verification system which enables electors to see whether their votes have been recorded correctly, fortifies the principle of vote verifiability, thereby enhancing the overall accountability of the electoral process.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls began on April 19 and will conclude with the announcement of results on June 4.
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CID begins probe into 'honeytrap' attempt on Minister Rajanna: MLC Rajendra
Bengaluru, Mar 27 (PTI): Karnataka Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna's son and Congress MLC K N Rajendra on Thursday said officials from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police have begun a preliminary investigation into the alleged attempts to "honeytrap" his father and had visited his official residence.
He stated that he had met Karnataka DGP and IGP Alok Mohan today to share information regarding an alleged attempt to "murder" him.
"I believe the ('honeytrap' attempts) case has been handed over to the CID. The CID visited the government house (allocated to Rajanna) on Jayamahal Road here and questioned the staff. They have initiated a preliminary inquiry—this is the information I have," Rajendra said.
Speaking to reporters, he said since the DGP had assigned the case to the CID, they began their investigation today: "It is based on the petition submitted to the Home Minister."
On Tuesday, Rajanna had submitted a petition to State Home Minister G Parameshwara, seeking a probe and necessary action regarding the alleged attempts to "honeytrap" him.
Parameshwara stated that the government would examine Rajanna's petition judiciously within the framework of the law and take necessary action after consulting legal experts and discussing it with the Chief Minister.
Last Thursday, Rajanna informed the Assembly that "honeytrap" attempts had been made on him and that at least 48 politicians across parties had fallen victim to such schemes.
Asked whether he had filed a complaint regarding the "honeytrap" case with the DGP, Rajendra clarified that there was no such attempt against him.
He said he had only informed the media about certain phone calls.
"November 16 was my daughter's birthday. A day before, some individuals arrived to set up a 'shamiana'. Allegedly, they had come intending to assault or murder me on a supari (contract). Their attempt was unsuccessful. I learned about it in January after receiving a voice recording from my source," he claimed.
He mentioned that two names—Soma and Bharath—surfaced in the recording, which captured a conversation between two individuals discussing a Rs 5 lakh payment made to their account.
Rajendra said he had recently brought this matter to the attention of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who advised him to gather all relevant information and submit it to the DGP.
"I don't know the two people mentioned in the conversation nor their intentions. I have brought the matter to the notice of the Chief Minister and the Home Minister. I have also submitted the audio recording and all related information to the DG, who advised me to approach the SP (Tumakuru) and file a complaint there, which I will do tomorrow," he added.
