Supreme Court Asks Election Commission To Look Into Kerala EVM Mock Poll Allegation

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday has asked the Election Commission to look into the errors seen during the mock polls conducted in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Extra votes were recorded in favour of BJP in the EVM machines during the mock poll held on Wednesday.

Bench comprising of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta made this observation while considering a plea on the EVM-VVPAT verification.

While the court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally every vote cast through VVPAT, advocate Prashant Bhushan raised the issue of EVM machines in Kerala.

Presently, the VVPAT verification is done by randomly selecting EVMs in each assembly segment.

In Kerala, at least four of the electronic voting machines erroneously registered votes in favour of BJP during the mock polling in Kasaragod. When a vote is cast for BJP, the VVPAT registers it as two, alleged the opposition candidates. If no votes are cast for the saffron party, VVPAT registers it as one vote.

During the hearing, the apex court observed that “this is an electoral process and there has to be sanctity to it and let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done.”

Soon after the error was noticed, a complaint was filed by LDF and UDF candidates with District Collector Inbasekar K pointing out the errors. The Supreme Court also observed that in the electoral process, there has to be sanctity and nobody should have apprehension that something which is expected is not being alone.

VVPAT is a system that allows the voters to verify if their votes have been cast correctly and counted towards the candidate they intend to support. The VVPAT produces a paper slip that is securely stored and can be accessed in case of any dispute or discrepancies.