India elections 2024: Supreme Court rejects all petitions seeking 100 per cent EVM-VVPAT verification

Indian Supreme Court on Friday (Apr 26) rejected all petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips.

Supreme Court directed that, after the completion of symbol loading process, the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) should be sealed and they should be stored at least for 45 days.

"The burnt memory in the microcontroller EVM shall be checked by a team of engineers after the declaration of results on a request by candidates in serial number 2 and 3, such a request to be made within 7 days after the declaration of results," Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, according to the LiveLaw.

"The expenses for the verification (of the programme) to be borne by the candidates making the request, in case the EVM is found to be tampered, the expenses will be refunded," Justice Khanna said, adding that blindly distrusting a system can lead to unwarranted suspicions.

The Supreme Court asked Election Commission of India to examine the suggestion for an electronic machine for counting the paper slips, and whether along with the symbol there can be a bar code for each party.

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"That on completion of the symbol loading process in the EVM undertaken on or after 01.05.2024, the symbol loading unit should be sealed and secured in containers. The candidates and their representatives shall sign the seal. The sealed containers containing the SLUs shall be kept in the store rooms along with the EVMs at least for 45 days post the declaration of results," Justice Khanna said.

What does it mean?

The VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) is an independent system attached to the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) that allows voters to check if their votes were cast as intended.

When a vote is cast, a slip is printed containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate, and this is shown to the voter from a transparent screen for a fewseconds. The machine stores it in a sealed box.

In the event of alleged discrepancies, the paper slips can be cross-checked against the votes recorded electronically to see if the declared result is valid.

During the hearings, the poll panel explained that there is a 4MB flash memory in each VVPAT machine which stores the party symbols.

This unit, or the SLU, will be kept in locked storerooms with the EVMs, the court said.

What was the case?

The bunch of petitions before the court had sought a direction to cross-verify every vote cast on EVMs with paper slips generated by the VVPAT system. The court earlier said it was not the controlling authority for elections and could not dictate the functioning of the poll body which is a constitutional authority in itself.

(With inputs from agencies)