AIROnline 2024 SC 276

Supreme Court Of India

Hon'ble Judge(s): Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta , JJ

(A) Representation of the People Act (43 of 1951) , S.169— Conduct of Election Rules (1961) , R.49A— Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) - Suspicion regarding manipulation of EVMs - Due to restriction on number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine (VVPAT) paper slips, each EVM can be used for casting of up to 1500 votes and not more - Control unit is configured in a way that each vote would take about 15 seconds - In one minute, only four votes can be cast - This prevents and checks bogus voting - EVMs are standalone machines which cannot be connected to internet - EVMs do not have any ports so as to enable a person to have access to the burnt memory - Plea of possibility of hacking or tampering with agnostic firmware in burnt memory to tutor/favour results was unfounded - Suspicion that EVMs can be manipulated for repeated or wrong recording of votes to favour a particular candidate was rejected. (Para 40 41 42) (B) Representation of the People Act (43 of 1951) , S.169— Conduct of Election Rules (1961) , R.49A, R.49MA, R.56D— EVM - Prayer regarding 100% counting of VVPAT slips in addition to electronic counting by control unit and printed slip from VVPAT to be given to voter to verify and put in bal....