The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday raised concerns regarding the standards followed by the Election Commission in relation to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. This query came during the hearing of a petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which sought to prevent the deletion of data from EVMs after the completion of vote counting.
The court instructed that data stored in EVMs must not be deleted or altered, and the Election Commission should ensure that proper procedures are in place to maintain the integrity of the data. The Commission was directed to submit a report within 15 days outlining the methodology it follows for deleting data from EVMs post-election.
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In a related matter, the Supreme Court had previously dismissed petitions demanding 100% cross-verification of EVM results with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The court also mandated that once the symbol loading process in an EVM is completed, the machine should be sealed and stored for a minimum of 45 days for further examination.
Candidates were given a seven-day window after election results to file objections. Additionally, the court ordered that the memory burnt in microcontroller-based EVMs be checked by a team of engineers. It further specified that candidates raising objections would bear the costs of verification, with the provision for reimbursement in case EVM tampering is confirmed.
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