Ex-Haryana Minister Moves Supreme Court For Verification And Checking Of EVMs Used In Haryana Polls

Former Haryana Cabinet Minister and 5-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal has approached the Supreme Court seeking verification and checking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the recent Haryana Assembly Elections.

The petition filed by Dalal, alongwith Lakhan Kumar Singla (a candidate in the Haryana polls), seeks directions to the Election Commission of India to lay down a policy/memorandum for the checking and verification of the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the four components of the EVM (Control Unit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT and Symbol Loading Unit) in terms of the judgment in Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India & Anr.

The excerpt from Association for Democratic Reforms (supra) relevant to the petitioners' case reads thus:

“The burnt memory/microcontroller in 5% of the EVMs, that is, the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT, per assembly constituency/assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency shall be checked and verified by the team of engineers from the manufacturers of the EVMs, post the announcement of the results, for any tampering or modification, on a written request made by candidates who are at SI.No.2 or Sl.No.3, behind the highest polled candidate. Such candidates or their representatives shall identify the EVMs by the polling station or serial number. All the candidates and their representatives shall have an option to remain present at the time of verification…”

Statedly, the petitioners are candidates who secured second highest votes in their respective constituencies in the recently concluded elections for the Legislative Assembly in the State of Haryana.

It is their case that the ECI has not issued any policy/guideline/procedure for checking and verification of the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the four components of the EVM in terms of the judgment in Association for Democratic Reforms (supra).

“As per the prescribed SoP issued by EC, the procedure for checking and verification of burnt memory/microcontroller of EVMs is to conduct a basic diagnostic test and a mock poll, without any checking and verification of the burnt memory or chip by manufacturers of EVM. Furthermore, the role of engineers from BEL/ECIL as per the SoP is mainly to count the VVPAT slips so generated during the mock poll. The absence of any procedure for verification of burnt memory for tampering shows reluctance on the part of the Respondent to subject the original burnt memory/microcontroller from any scrutiny whatsoever.”

Praying for the said exercise to be conducted within a period of 8 weeks, the petitioners clarify that they have not sought to challenge the results of the elections by the present petition. For the said purpose, they have filed separate election petitions, which are pending before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The petition has been filed through Advocate-on-Record Neha Rathi.

Case Title: KARAN SINGH DALAL & ANR. VERSUS ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA