New Delhi:
The Supreme Court will tomorrow deliver its verdict on petitions seeking 100 percent verification of VVPATs in which votes were entered into Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
The verdict will come on a day when 88 seats will be voted on in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta will deliver the verdict around 10:30 am.
Petitioners include the nonprofit Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
During the hearing on the petitions on Wednesday, before reserving its judgment, the Supreme Court had said the court “cannot monitor the elections” or issue directions simply because doubts have been raised about the effectiveness of EVMs.
The stack of petitions shows that the EVMs can be tinkered with to manipulate the results. The court, however, said it cannot change the thought process of those who doubt the benefits of EVMs and call for a return to ballot papers.
The Supreme Court sought answers from an Election Commission official on five questions related to the functioning of EVMs, including whether the microcontrollers built into them are reprogrammable.
Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas, who had earlier made a presentation before the court on the functioning of EVMs, responded to the question on microcontrollers.
He said they are one-time programmable at the time of production and installed in all three EVM units: the voting unit, Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) and the control unit. They cannot be reprogrammed afterward, he said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represented the petitioner ADR, alleged that the EC official's statement was not completely correct. He cited a report from a private agency to support his claim.
“The report says the type of memory used in these three units can be reprogrammed. A malicious program can easily be uploaded the moment the symbol is loaded,” Mr Bhushan claimed, adding that efforts should be made to clear doubts about the transparency of EVMs. .