The Supreme Court, on Thursday, highlighted media reports claiming that extra votes were erroneously recorded in favour of the BJP in four electronic voting machines (EVMs) during a mock poll in Kerala and directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to look into the allegation.
The issue was brought to the fore in the apex court during the hearing of the EVM-VVPAT case by advocate Prashant Bhushan.
After hearing the issue, a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta passed this oral direction.
For the unversed, the matter came up just a day ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha 2024 polls.
Polling of 543 Lok Sabha seats is being held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1. The counting of votes and results are expected on June 4.
Voting on all 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will be held in a single phase on April 26.
Which media reported issue in mock polls in Kerala?
Advocate Bhushan cited a report by Manorama Online published on April 17.
What did the report say?
According to the
report
, during mock polling in Kasaragod on Wednesday (April 17), at least four EVMs erroneously registered votes in favour of BJP, alleged agents of Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidates.
A complaint was also registered by Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency’s LDF candidate and CPM leader M V Balakrishnan with District Collector Inbasekar K, designated as the District Election Officer, to look into the errors.
As per the report, the voting machines in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency have 10 options, including NOTA (none of the above).
In the first round of mock polls, all 190 EVMs were tested by casting votes against each of the 10 options. BJP’s lotus symbol was the first option.
The report further said the officials tested 20 machines at a time. When all 10 options on the EVMs were pressed one time each, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) gave two votes to the BJP in four machines.
When the button next to BJP’s lotus symbol was not pressed, the same four erroneous VVPAT units gave one vote to the party, the report quoted UDF candidate Rajmohan Unnithan’s agent Muhammed Nasar Cherkalam Abdulla as saying.
Cherkalam said the errors automatically disappeared when the EVMs were tested for the third time. “But we cannot be sure that the errors would reappear in the fourth or fifth test,” he added.
What did SC say then?
The Supreme Court then asked senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the ECI, to “check it up”.
The court on Thursday reserved the verdict on pleas seeking 100 per cent cross-verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.
The petitioners, including Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), have urged the court to allow electorates physical access to the VVPAT slips to confirm the votes they have cast before putting the slips into the sealed ballot boxes.
With inputs from agencies
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SC asks EC to look into allegation of EVMs recording extra votes in Kerala mock poll
