Context :
Can’t question EVMs solely on suspicion: Supreme Court .. HT … 25 Apr 2024
Extract :
The Supreme Court on Wednesday emphasised that the Election Commission of India (ECI), a separate constitutional authority, is responsible for overseeing election management, adding it cannot issue orders that question the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and their integration with the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) based solely on suspicions or private reports.
A bench of a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta added that it cannot do much if the petitioners -- who demanded 100% cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs with VVPATs or going back to the ballot paper system -- were “already prejudiced”.
“We can’t control the elections. We are not the controlling authority of some other constitutional authority. If there are issues, there are laws to deal with them. The judgment of this court (in 2013) directed them to use VVPAT and they complied... Where is the direction of the court to match all slips? The court later said 5% (EVM-VVPAT matching in 2019) and they have followed our order. Let someone from those 5% say there have been mismatches. Can we issue a mandamus on the basis of suspicion?” the bench asked.
It pointed out that the top court had intervened on two occasions in the past. “At the first instance, this court asked them (ECI) to use VVPAT, and then the verification of EVMs with VVPAT was increased from 1 to 5 [in every assembly segment]. When we asked you (petitioners) for suggestions, we were told to go back to the ballot system...We will see what is needed to strengthen the current system,” the court said.
“If you are already determined about it, we can’t help it. We aren’t here to change your thought process... There has been no hacking detected till date. The report you are relying on says that there is no incident of hacking yet,” the bench told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for non-profit Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
According to Bhushan, the micro-controllers in EVMs contain a flash memory, and therefore are amenable to reprogramming or malicious malware.
Bhushan’s “doubts” over the security of EVMs came through after the court heard a senior ECI official who was called upon to address specific queries regarding the micro-controllers and other security features embedded in the voting machines.
My Take :
Dear Hon Judges :
In the matter of 100 % verification of VVPAT with EVM , it is quite understandable that you said > We cannot order the Election Commission
But surely, you can “ Ask – Guide – Direct “ the Commission , as you have done many times in the past
Especially , if your “ Guidance “ :
Ø Will satisfy the demand for 100 % verification
And simultaneously ,
Ø Eliminate “ Human Intervention “ ( no manual verification what-so-ever ) , altogether !
Dear Hon Judges,
I urge you to “ Ask “ Election Commission :
“ Tell us why you cannot implement the following TECHNOLOGY based solutions ? “ :
VVPAT ? How about EVBAT ? …………. …………..28 Mar 2019
100 % verification of VVPAT ? No problem ! .. 02 Apr 2019
Votes Audit : Paper gives 99.9936% / Electronic gives 100 %.. 18 Mar 2024
And also ask Shri Prashant Bhushan :
“ If you have any problems with the implementation of these solutions , within a week tell us what “
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / 25 Apr 2024
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