Haryana ex-minister Karan Singh Dalal’s plea for verification of EVM counts to be heard by CJI-Led Bench

The Supreme Court on Friday directed that the plea filed by former Haryana minister Karan Singh Dalal regarding the verification of electronic voting machines (EVMs) will now be heard by a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna. This move marks a shift from an earlier directive, where the petition was to be heard by a Bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta.

The petition seeks a directive for the Election Commission to establish a clear policy for verifying the “burnt memory” or microcontroller of the four EVM components: Control Unit, Ballot Unit, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), and Symbol Loading Unit. Dalal, five-time MLA, and Lakhan Kumar Singla, who contested the recent Haryana Assembly election, had made allegations of non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s April 26, 2024 verdict in the case Association for Democratic Reforms versus Union of India.

The matter came up before a Bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan on Friday. The judges recommended referring it to the Chief Justice’s Bench. Interestingly, on 20 December CJI Khanna had expressed the opinion that the case must be heard before Justice Datta’s Bench, for it was he who earlier heard a connected case. Further, Justice Datta was himself part of CJI Khanna-led Bench on which the decision dated 26 April was rendered, dismissing the challenge to the use of EVMs in polls.

The April 26 verdict had dismissed petitions seeking a return to the paper ballot system or 100% cross-verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips. However, it had directed the Election Commission to strengthen the EVM system and introduced a mechanism allowing second- and third-place candidates to seek verification of microcontroller chips in five percent of the EVMs in their constituencies upon payment of a fee.

The court rejected that and added a third condition and mandated the engineers from the EVM manufacturing companies to conduct these verifications after the election results were announced.

Even after these directives, Dalal and Singla have alleged that the EC has still not issued any policy for verification of burnt memory or microcontroller chips. This leaves the procedure ambiguous. Both petitioners, who secured second-highest votes in their constituencies, argued that EC’s inaction has left them unable to seek the necessary verifications.

The petitioners have asked the Supreme Court to order the EC to undertake an explicit procedure of scrutinizing the actual burnt memory or microcontroller of the EVM parts within eight weeks. Apart from this, they have filed separate election petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court questioning the result in their respective constituency.

The matter has made a lot of headlines, keeping in view all the current controversy over the secrecy and trustworthiness of the EVMs. The same CJI led Bench will decide on this, and now all eyes are to see if Supreme Court directs even stricter measures by the Election Commission.