The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that “it is contemplating foolproof methods” to ensure that electronic voting machines (EVMs) are not misused or tampered with as is being feared in some quarters.
Appearing for the poll panel before a bench of justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi, senior counsel Ashok Desai said the EC was taking various steps in consultation with technical experts and eliciting the views of all recognised political parties on the issue.
On the EC’s submissions, which were made on Thursday, the apex court adjourned till January 22, the hearing on Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy’s petition for a direction to the poll panel that in future elections, EVMs should have a paper trail and issue a paper receipt to each voter.
The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to hear on priority Swamy’s plea to incorporate paper printouts in EVMs or restore paper balloting system allegedly because EVMs “are not tamper proof.”
Arguing in person, Swamy had made a plea for reverting to the old paper-ballot system saying all advanced countries in the world, including the USA and Japan, have discarded EVMs and gone back to the paper-ballot system.
The Janata Party leader had contended that even Japan which had pioneered the launch of EVMs, was today relying on the paper-ballot system only.
He said only private companies across the world are manufacturing EVMs, which are vulnerable to hacking.
—PTI