SC Ensures Polling Data is Not Deleted Till Verified by Losing Candidates

The Supreme Court asked the Election Commission of India to ensure that polling data is not deleted from the election voting machines till they are being verified. The bench consisting of Chief Justice of India, Sanjeev Khanna, and Justice Dipankar Dutta said this while seeking the ECI’s response to a plea by NGLO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). NGO alleged that the ECI procedure for verification of EVM was not in accordance with the April 2024 order of the Supreme Court.

“What we intended was that if after the poles, somebody asked the engineer should come and certify that according to him in their presence, there is no tampering in any of the burnt memory or the microchips stock. That’s all.” said the chief justice of India and asked senior advocate Mahinder Singh appearing for the ECI, “Why do you erase the data?”

The Order Statement

In the April 26, 2024 order, the top court allowed candidates at positions second and third to get burnt memory on the microcontroller of 5% of the EVM per assembly segment, after being “checked and verified by a team of engineers from EVM manufacturers post the announcement of results”. The candidates can do so on a written request in exchange for a certain cost, yet to be notified by the election commission.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for ADR said that the election commission only does mock poles for verification of the EDM.

“ What we want is that somebody should examine the software and hardware of EVM to see whether they have any element of manipulation or not,” said Advocate Bhushan.