Earlier, at the March 16 presser to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, CEC Kumar had noted,” Almost 40 times constitutional courts — the Supreme Court and the high courts — have rejected pleas challenging EVMs.”
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The Election Commission Friday noted that courts have dismissed at least 40 petitions in recent times, challenging the “fairness” and reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) even as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar recently asserted that the machines are “100 percent safe” and fair and political parties know this in their “heart of their hearts”.
The EC’s assertions come on a day when the Supreme Court rejected a slew of petitions seeking the complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
‘EVMs 100 percent safe, fair’
Earlier, at the March 16 presser to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, CEC Kumar had noted,” Almost 40 times constitutional courts — the Supreme Court and the high courts — have rejected pleas challenging EVMs.”
The poll panel chief, citing an EC publication, had said it showed how many times ruling parties have been voted out in elections where EVMs were used.
“Political parties have come into existence due to EVMs. There are many smaller parties, which in the age of ballot paper, might not have come into existence,” Kumar had said, adding that the EVMs are fair and political parties recognise it in the “heart of their hearts”.
The CEC also described them as “100 per cent safe, 100 per cent sure”.
SC junks pleas seeking 100 percent VVPAT matching
On Friday, a two-judge SC bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered delivered two concurring verdicts and dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to ballot papers in elections.
In its verdict, the top court noted that “blindly distrusting” any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism, and maintained that “democracy is all about striving to build harmony and trust between all institutions”.
The apex court bench also issued two directives. Pronouncing his verdict, Justice Khanna directed the Election Commission to seal and store units used to load symbols for 45 days after the symbols have been loaded into electronic voting machines in strong rooms.
The SC also allowed engineers of the EVM manufacturers to verify the microcontroller of the machines after the declaration of the results on the request of candidates who stood second and third.
(With PTI inputs)
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