Can’t pull down EVMs... voting humongous task: Supreme Court .. HT .. 17 April 2024

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SC finds no merit in 'going back to ballot paper' logic … ET … 17 April 2024

Extract from HT link :

The current system of polling through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) cannot be pulled down without there being any substantial issue of propriety in the process, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday, advocating caution against the perils of reverting to the traditional ballot box system.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta cited the sheer size of India’s population and the vast number of voters as key factors, as it heard a clutch of petitions demanding 100% cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs with Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs), just days before the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. At present, the VVPAT-EVM verification is limited to five in each assembly segment of a constituency.

Alternatively, the petitions argued in favour of going back to the ballot box system, contending that several European countries, including Germany, went back to the traditional system of casting votes.

But the bench sounded a word of caution.

“What’s the population of Germany? And how many people vote in India? There are almost 98 crore voters in India and around 60% vote. At least that many people vote...So, you are saying 60 crore VVPAT should be tallied,” it told advocates Prashant Bhushan, and senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Anand Grover and Huzefa Ahmadi, who appeared for the bunch of petitioners.

The court added that voting in India is a “humongous task” that may not even be possible for several European countries. “My home state, West Bengal, has more population than the country (Germany) Mr Bhushan mentioned. We will have to repose trust and confidence in some institution. Of course, they have to be accountable. But don’t try to bring down a system like this,” justice Datta added.

Setting down the next hearing of the case on Thursday (April 18), the bench further remarked that the statistics shown by the petitioners show no discrepancies or irregularities in 99.9% of cases.

“As we said, when there are no human interventions, there are mostly no problems. Machines are manipulated by humans...There’s bound to be some instances of mismatch because of human errors,” added the court, asking ECI to be ready with statistics and pertinent information on the functioning of EVMs and VVPATs on the next date.

The bench opined that human intervention leads to problems with the fairness of the process. “Then questions regarding human weaknesses, including biases, will crop up. Machines without human intervention will give you correct results. It will be accurate,” it observed.

Addressing the lawyers’ contention regarding reverting to the ballot box system, justice Khanna said: “Fortunately, we are not in the 60s when we have all seen what used to happen with ballot papers. I haven’t forgotten what the situation at the time was...We have all seen the problems in the past. And we are not only talking about booth capturing. There are other problems too.”

MY TAKE :

Dear Hon Judges of the Supreme court :

You have made very important following observations :

Ø There can be no question of going back to paper ballots . Just not possible in India

Ø It is totally impractical to carry out VVPAT reconciliation for 60 crore votes likely to be cast

Ø Machines without human intervention will give you correct results. It will be accurate,

Hence , these points are “ settled “

Dear Sirs :

Not for impending elections , but for future elections , it is entirely possible to carry out 100 % VVPAT verification , WITHOUT HUMAN INTERVENTION

When you listen to what Election Commission has to say in this matter tomorrow , please ask them what holds them back to implement my following earlier suggestions ( sent to cec@eci.gov.in / supremecourt@nic.in ) :