Supreme Court Tells Election Commission Not to Erase EVM Data During Verification
The Supreme Court directs ECI not to erase EVM data during verification and questions the high Rs 40,000 fee, seeking a detailed explanation of the process.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that data from Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is not deleted while being verified. This ruling came after the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) raised concerns about the verification process not aligning with the Supreme Court’s April 2024 order.
In its previous ruling, the Court had allowed candidates in second and third place to request verification of the burnt memory or microcontroller in 5% of EVMs per Assembly segment. This verification should be conducted by engineers from EVM manufacturers post-result announcement, with a cost to be determined by the ECI.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing ADR, argued that the current EVM verification process only involves mock polls, not an in-depth examination of the machines' software and hardware. He emphasized that there should be a thorough review to detect any potential manipulation.
Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, representing another petitioner, echoed these concerns, noting that the verification charges of Rs 40,000 are excessively high. He also raised an issue with the deletion of previous data during the reloading process.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna clarified that the Court’s intent behind the April 2024 order was to ensure no disruption in the counting process. The CJI stressed that engineers should only verify that the burnt memory and microchips are free from tampering without erasing or reloading any data.
“Why do you erase the data?” the CJI asked ECI’s counsel, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh. The bench emphasized that the verification process should be straightforward, without unnecessary modifications to the data.
Additionally, the bench pointed out the high cost of verification and instructed the ECI to reduce the fee of Rs 40,000, calling it too steep.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 3, 2025. The Court also requested the ECI to file an affidavit detailing the verification procedure and confirmed that no changes would be made to the data in the meantime.
