New Delhi, February 11
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India to file its response on the pleas seeking verification of the burnt memory and symbol loading units in EVMs in compliance of its previous judgement.
A special bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta asked the Election Commission to refrain from erasing or reloading data during the verification process.
It asked the poll panel to file its response within 15 days and explain the procedure adopted. The bench posted the matter in the week commencing March 3.
The apex court was hearing pleas seeking a direction to the Election Commission to check and verify burnt memory/micro-controllers and the symbol loading unit (SLU) of electronic voting machines (EVM).
A fresh application filed by Assosiation for Democratic Reforms (ADR) stated that the standard operating procedure of the poll panel for verification of the EVMs was not in accordance with the 2024 judgement passed in the EVM-VVPAT case.
It urged the apex court to direct the poll panel to refrain from clearing or deleting the contents of the original burnt memory of EVMs, particularly in cases where verification applications were pending.
The top court also refused to hear a fresh plea filed by former Haryana minister and five-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal seeking a policy for the verification of EVMs.
In its judgement of April 26, 2024, the apex court had declined the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system.
Rejecting the pleas to revert back to the paper ballot system the top court had said the polling devices were secured and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.
However, it had allowed aggrieved unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in election results and allowed them to seek verification of micro-controller chips embedded in 5 per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.
- ANI