'We are becoming over-suspicious': SC on PIL seeking EVM-VVPAT tally

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday, while hearing a petition filed by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking a direction to cross-verify the vote count in Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) with votes "recorded as cast" in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), observed that the petitioners are becoming overly suspicious.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.N.V Bhatti heard the plea that sought a declaration that voters had a fundamental right to verify that vote has been "recorded as cast" and "counted as recorded" from the top court and cross-verification of EVM data against VVPAT records.

While hearing senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for PIL filed by ADR, Justice Sanjiv Khanna remarked, "We are becoming over-suspicious."

Bhushan, while making his argument, had said that if only 2 per cent of EVMs were currently cross-verified and even if 10 per cent have a problem, then the chance of one of those EVMs being picked out of five randomly selected EVMs is only 40 per cent.

"Election Commission is saying that counting five EVMs per constituency, which amounts to 2 per cent, gives us 99.999 per cent confidence that EVMs are fine...Now, I've been a student of Mathematics. If only 2 per cent of the VVPATs are counted...let's take only one constituency, even assuming that in 10 per cent of EVMs there is a problem, the chance of one being picked up out of the 5 randomly selected is only 40 per cent" Bhushan said in the court.

Justice Khanna, however, replied that it was done to ensure EVMs are not tampered with.

Bhushan further requested the court to list the case on a non-miscellaneous day.

He further told the bench that he wanted to show the court the judgement by the highest court in Germany.

However, Justice Khanna reminded Bhushan that India has its own judgements and the population of Germany cannot be compared to the numbers in India.

"What's the population of Germany versus the population of UP? How can we compare? They have enough hands over there. In fact, counting by hand also needs to progress. It's a big problem," Justice Khanna remarked.

He further said that there are several limitations to counting VVPAT as it increases the work and there are already provisions that lets citizens request counting, adding that since counting is done manually, it may be erroneous.

Bhushan, however, insisted that if bar codes were put on each VVPAT slip then it can be facilitated.

To this Justice Khanna replied, "We have become overly suspicious". The matter will be again listed in December.

Justice Khanna had made similar observations about over-suspicion in the previous hearing as well.

In the previous hearing, the petitioners had earlier argued that only around two percent of EVMs were currently cross-verified. In response to this, Justice Khanna pointed out practical limitations faced by the ECI and declined to issue notice at that stage.

However, the court had instructed the counsel to serve a copy of the petition to the standing counsel of the ECI, before adjourning the hearing.