EVM-VVPAT hearing: EVM tampering is not possible, Election Commission’s reply to Supreme Court

Hearing in Supreme Court on VVPAT: With the first phase of voting taking place on Friday (April 19) in the world’s largest democracy, questions have once again started being raised about EVMs before the voting and the matter has reached the Supreme Court today during the hearing. Once again the fears of EVM-VVPAT hacking were completely rejected. However, the Supreme Court asked the Commission to provide detailed information on the steps taken to conduct free and fair elections. After this the Commission answered all the questions of the court.

Opposition is continuously criticizing EVM

The opposition is continuously criticizing the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and they say that EVMs can be hacked. The Supreme Court today heard a petition seeking to match the votes cast by EVMs with the slips generated from the VVPAT system. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta said, ‘This is (an) electoral process. There should be purity in it. One should not be afraid that what is expected is not happening. Advocate Maninder Singh appeared in the court on behalf of the Election Commission, while advocates Nizam Pasha and Prashant Bhushan appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioners.

Demand to bring transparency in VVPAT machine

During the hearing of the case, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that at least it should be ordered that the VVPAT machine should be transparent and the bulb should remain lit continuously, so that the voter can get complete confirmation. Advocate Sanjay Hegde said that counting of all VVPAT slips should be considered. If this cannot be done, then the court should pass some interim orders to ensure the fairness of the elections to be held now.

Tell the court about the process related to VVPAT: Supreme Court

Apart from this, the lawyer said that the engineers of EVM manufacturing companies can control the machine. However, the court rejected this argument as frivolous. The judges asked Election Commission counsel Maninder Singh to inform the court about the process related to VVPAT either himself (Maninder Singh) or through an officer. On this question, Maninder Singh said that the court’s question will be answered, but he wants to humbly say that all the applications are based only on suspicion. Maninder Singh told the court that VVPAT is just a printer.

Election Commission told how VVPAT works?

Addressing the judges, an Election Commission official said that the button unit only contains information about which number button was pressed. This information goes to the control unit and the printing command goes to the VVPAT from the control unit. On this the judge asked that then how will VVPAT know where to mark? To which the officer said that there was a very small symbol loading unit, the size of which was like a TV remote. It cannot be controlled from outside because it cannot connect to the Internet or any external network. This unit processes the commands received from the control unit and gives information to the VVPAT.

Marks and roll numbers are uploaded in the presence of candidates: Election Commission

After this, the judge asked during the hearing what information is there in this unit? And when is it uploaded? In response to which the officer said that the unit contains the serial number, election symbol of the party and the name of the candidate. The official further said that these serial numbers, election symbols and names of the candidates are uploaded in the presence of representatives of the candidates a week before the polling. After which it cannot be changed. The official further said that it has also been confirmed to the representatives that the slip of the button pressed comes from the VVPAT.

EVM tampering is not possible: Election Commission

The judge hearing the VVPAT case asked the Election Commission official, how many VVPATs do you have? The officer replied that we have 17 lakhs. On which the judge asked the second question that why are the numbers of EVM and VVPAT different? On which the election officer gave a satisfactory answer to the judge and said that in the mock poll, the candidates can test any machine as per their wish. Apart from this, the officer also said that it is not possible to obtain information about the data or manipulate it.

EC raised questions on BJP getting extra votes in Kerala

When Election Commission counsel Maninder Singh started presenting arguments, the court asked him to respond to media reports that the BJP got one extra vote out of four machines in the mock poll conducted in Kerala. However, the Election Commission has rejected media reports of BJP getting some more votes from EVM machines in the Kerala mock poll.