Can’t
pull down EVMs... voting humongous task: Supreme Court .. HT .. 17 April
2024
( Another link for same news >
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 ) :
VVPAT ? How about EVBAT ? ………….
…………..28 Mar 2019
100 % verification of VVPAT ? No problem ! .. 02 Apr
2019
Votes
Audit : Paper gives 99.9936% / Electronic gives 100 %.. 18 Mar 2024
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / 17
April 2024
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