The Supreme Court on Friday said the plea seeking a
policy for verification of electronic voting machines should go before the same
bench that delivered a verdict in April rejecting the demand for bringing back
the old paper ballots.
When the plea on EVMs came up for hearing, a bench
of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale told petitioner's counsel senior
advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, "Why don't this matter go before the same
bench?" Sankaranarayanan informed the court about its April judgment
on a batch of pleas over EVMs.
"That is what I am saying. It (plea) should go
before the same bench," Justice Nath reiterated.
The bench further said, "To our understanding,
the reliefs claimed by means of this petition under Article 32 of the
Constitution of India would require interpretation/modification/implementation
of the directions issued by this court vide judgement dated April 26, 2024 ..." In
its verdict on April 26, the apex court termed the suspicion of manipulation of
the EVMs "unfounded" and said the polling devices were
"secured" and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.
The top court, however, opened a window for the
aggrieved unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in poll
results while allowing them to seek verification of microcontroller chips
embedded in five per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request
upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.
It asked the apex court registry to place the papers
of the case before Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna for passing appropriate orders
on whether the petition would be listed before the same bench or another bench.
The petition was filed by former Haryana minister
Karan Singh Dalal and five-time MLA Lakhan Kumar Singla.
It sought compliance of the April 26 judgement of
the top court delivered in the case of 'Association for Democratic Reforms
versus Union of India'.
Dalal and Singla secured the second-highest votes in
their respective constituencies and sought a direction to the Election
Commission (EC) to implement a protocol for examining the original "burnt
memory" or microcontroller of the four components of the EVM -- the
control unit, ballot unit, VVPAT and symbol loading unit.
The top court had mandated that five per cent of the
EVMs every assembly constituency should undergo verification by the engineers
from EVM manufacturers after the election results were announced.
The petitioners said the poll panel has failed to
issue any such policy, leaving the procedure for burnt memory verification
unclear.
According to the petition, the current standard
operating procedure issued by the EC only involves basic diagnostic tests and
mock polls without scrutinising the burnt memory for tampering.
The petitioners said their plea did not challenge
the election results but sought a robust mechanism for EVM verification.
Separate election petitions challenging the results
are pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The petitioners have
urged the Supreme Court to direct the EC to conduct the verification exercise
within eight weeks.
The BJP won 48 out of 90 assembly seats in the
recently held elections in Haryana.