A petition filed by five-time former MLA Karan Singh Dalal, who contested the Haryana Assembly election in 2024, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to lay down a policy for verifying the original burnt memory/microcontroller of electronic voting machines will be heard by a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.
The petition came up on Friday (January 24, 2025) before a Bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta. The Bench however observed that the case ought to be listed before the Chief Justice’s Bench, which had similar petitions pending before it.
The case had first come up before a Bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath and subsequently before the Chief Justice himself in December. The Chief Justice Bench had, in open court then, said the case ought to be heard by Justice Dipankar Datta.
On Friday, the case was referred from Justice Datta’s Bench back to the Chief Justice for listing, likely, before the latter’s own Bench again.
The petition by Mr. Dalal is an off-shoot of a judgment pronounced by a Bench of Justice (as he was then) Khanna and Justice Datta on EVMs in April 2024. Justice Datta was the puisne judge on the Bench headed by Justice Khanna which gave the judgment in the Association for Democratic Reforms case in April.
Mr. Dalal, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocates Neha Rathi and Pranav Sachdeva, has argued that the original burnt memory/microcontroller of the control unit, ballot unit, Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and symbol loading unit must not be deleted.
The petition said EVMs and VVPATs must be under safe custody.
The April 2024 judgment delivered by the Bench of Justices Khanna and Dutta had upheld the EVM system of polling while refusing a plea to revive paper ballots. The court had said “blind distrust” of an institution or a system bred unwarranted scepticism and impeded progress.
The judgment had directed that the burnt memory of microcontrollers of 5% of EVMs, including that of control units, ballot units, and VVPATs, in every Assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency could be checked and verified by a team of engineers of the EVM manufacturers in case of any suspicion of tampering.
The exercise would be initiated on a written request from candidates who come second or third in the victor’s tally, the judgment had said. The applicants would identify the EVM to be verified or the polling station. The application for verification should be sent within seven days of the declaration of the election results.
The District Election Officer concerned, in consultation with the team of engineers, should verify the authenticity of the burnt memory of the microcontrollers of the EVMs verified, the April judgment had directed.
The expenses of the verification would be undertaken by the applicant candidates or their representatives. They would be refunded in case the EVMs were found tampered, the court had directed.
Published - January 24, 2025 08:35 pm IST
