SC bins plea on junking EVMs for ballots

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking the reintroduction of ballot paper in place of electronic voting machines (EVMs), saying allegations of tampering with electronic voting machine (EVM) are raked up only when people lose elections.

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Punjab Varale dismissed a plea filed by petitioner-in-person KA Paul to return to the ballot system due to the alleged manipulability of EVMs.

“When you lose, EVMs are tampered with; when you win, EVMs are fine,” remarked the apex court when the petitioner referred to the statements made by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his predecessor Jagan Mohan Reddy on EVMs.

It said, “When Chandrababu Naidu or Jagan Reddy lost, they said EVMs could be tampered with; when they win, they don’t say anything. We are dismissing this. This is not the place where you argue all of this.”

In March, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a similar PIL, seeking directions to conduct the Lok Sabha elections through ballot paper. “How many petitions shall we entertain? We cannot go by assumptions. Every method has its plus and minus points. We cannot entertain this,” it had told the petitioner, the general secretary of the Congress’ Mathura District Committee. The petitioner-in-person Nandini Sharma had said “concerns of the opposition parties about the EVMs must be first addressed by holding elections via ballot paper”.