HC rejects demand to test EVMs more times during mock trials

Nagpur: After the collector assured to address most of the grievances of Congress city unit and its Lok Sabha aspirant Nana Patole, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Sunday disposed of their plea for directives to strictly follow Election Commission of India’s (ECI) guidelines for conducting polls.
A division bench comprising justices Ravi Deshpande and Shreeram Modak created history by conducting a marathon hearing on Sunday, probably the first in the history of Nagpur bench. In perhaps another first, the case was single-handedly pleaded by collector-cum-returning officer (RO) Ashwin Mudgal, instead of the government and ECI lawyers.

Earlier, agreeing with apprehensions raised by senior counsel from Delhi Meenakshi Arora, assisted by Rafiq Akbani, the judges had directed Mudgal to increase number of strokes from 50 while mock testing random EVMs. The petitioners contended if there is any tampering, it would be discovered beyond 50 strokes.

When the collector cited instructions from ECI, the HC orally warned him to either follow its orders or face the music. He, however, informed that all EVMs were procured in September only and programmed to accept only 50 strokes for mock polls. Therefore, it’s not possible to increase the limit in the absence of requisite material and technical issues.

“We keep this question, as to whether the EVM and its connected units are designed to favour or disfavour any candidate at an election, open to be agitated at appropriate point of time, without entering into this controversy on merits for the present,” the judges finally said.

Mudgal, however, accepted the petitioners’ grievance of permitting candidates’ representatives to complete 1,000 strokes on selected EVMs. The Congress and Patole had contended they were not being permitted to do this in mock drills, despite ECI guidelines. The RO agreed to stick to the rules.

Petitioners had also complained about only one representative per candidate being allowed to carry out EVM mock trial while only a few of the 30 candidates were interested in the exercise. Mudgal pointed out they were already permitting two representatives per candidate.

On petitioners demand to make CCTV footage available to them, the RO replied second-level CCTV surveillance was yet to begin. He admitted that for some time the CCTVs were inoperative, but said everything was videographed and its record preserved.

The judges were satisfied by this explanation for the moment, and left the request for supply of footage open for hearing at a later appropriate time.

At the beginning, the judges had clarified they wouldn’t pass any order that would give rise to a distinct controversy and vitiate the election. “We wanted to ensure appropriate steps are taken as per ECI guidelines, which are to be strictly followed to maintain transparency, purity, security and accountability, they said.

Justices Deshpande and Modak added participation of candidates and their representatives in poll process has to be as per ECI guidelines. “It should be done to maintain trust and confidence in entire system, including conduct of elections. It’s from that point of view, we’re entertaining this petition, so that the public grievance is satisfied as far as possible, leaving minimum scope for any controversy about violation of guidelines,” they said.

Collector agrees to Uke’s contentions

Lawyer Satish Uke filed an intervention suggesting installation of two CCTV cameras outside the strong room, so that if one camera fails, the other can continue. Mudgal agreed to have multiple CCTVs so there is no scope for apprehension about security.

Uke’s other demand was to provide jammers to avoid any interruption in the electronic devices — EVMs, VVPATs and others. The RO informed that all these devices are internally connected, but aren’t prone to outside interference. He added that LED displays would be put at many places and a three-layer security would be maintained for post-poll arrangements.

HC asks collector to take action violators

At the end, Mudgal apprised the HC of a misleading news on a Marathi channel’s website regarding its directives to ECI to provide strong room footage of EVMs to Patole. “It can hardly be a matter of comment by HC,” the judges said. The bench orally directed the collector to take appropriate action against the violators.