Delhi High Court says not impossible to tamper EVMs

New Delhi, Jan 17: The Delhi High Court has pronounced its verdict on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) issue and has said that they are not tamper proof and are the backbone of elections in India.

After speculation rose on the efficacy of the EVMs, the HC in its ruling also stated that it was not impossible to tamper with the EVMs. The HC bench comprising Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw made the decision and added that it is difficult to issue any directions to the Election Commission.

The court added that the needful should be done to dispel the doubts that have emerged on EVMs.

The petitioner, Subramanian Swamy has said that a paper ballot was more efficient that EVMs and that they should be used to record votes. He had sought that election should revert to the old system. He had also stated that there was lack of transparency in EVMs.

Backing his claims, he had argued that European countries like the UK, the US and Japan had rejected EVMs due to their failure and had gone back to the paper ballot system. He had sought from court that election should revert to the old system.

He had sought from court that “the EVM’s brain, micro controller is being manufactured in foreign countries like Japan, which themselves do not use the machine due to its demerits.”

Ruling out the chance of going back to paper ballots, the EC stated that returning to paper ballots would not be feasible since it would require much expense with the country having more than 73 crore voters. The EC’s counsel commented, “The machine (EVM) accommodates as many as 64 party symbols and because of electronically organized data, the counting became faster.”