'Elections By Ballot Paper The Rule' : Lawyer Seeks To Intervene In Supreme Court Plea On EVM-VVPAT

Suggesting that voting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections should be conducted through ballot papers, Advocate Mehmood Pracha has approached the Supreme Court and prayed that he be permitted to intervene in the matter pending before the Court regarding Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification.  rein.

Pracha states in the application that he has been requesting the Election Commission of India to conduct the elections "through the constitutionally and statutorily mandated mechanism, i.e. through ballot papers, to ensure that the process is fair, transparent, and free from any illegal, external and surreptitious interference or manipulation", however, to no avail.

On the strength of the ECI Handbook titled “EVM BROCHURE FOR CANDIDATES & POLITICAL PARTIES”, he claims that there is no inherent security feature in the mechanism of EVMs. "...the sanctity of the voting process and the count recorded in the EVMs is secured solely by honest, vigilant and error-free supervision and handling by various stakeholders", the plea stated.

It is also Pracha's claim that in terms of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, election by the use of Ballot Papers and Ballot Boxes is the rule, and resorting to EVMs can be considered by the EC on a case to case basis only in exceptional circumstances (to be recorded in an order).

"Elections by the use of Ballot Papers and Ballot Boxes is the rule," his plea stated.

The petition further asserts that a system where the voter may take the VVPAT slip and deposit it in a ballot box himself is an alternative of greater transparency than the current system, where it is not possible for the voter to verify his vote at any stage. "A visual inspection of a slip through a glass, for a few seconds, is not a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in its true sense", Pracha pleads.

Notably, Pracha is himself contesting the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from a constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

The intervention application is moved through Advocate-on-Record RHA Sikander.

CASE TITLE: ARUN KUMAR AGRAWAL v. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA & ANR, WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 184 OF 2024