New Delhi, March 24: The Supreme Court today sought the Election Commission's response to a petition alleging rigging of electronic voting machines during the recent Assembly elections in various states and civic polls in Maharashtra.
Lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, who moved the public interest plea, wants the voting machine technology tested scientifically by international or national software experts.
Sharma has also accused the poll panel of "deliberately" avoiding the use of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, which allow voters to verify if their vote has been correctly registered, during the recent elections.
The bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul have granted the poll panel four weeks to respond.
"Fraud and tampering was complained of in Mumbai, where zero votes were recorded in favour of an Independent candidate while he and his family had voted for himself. This is but one evidence of a case of fraud, which proves that EVMs have been tampered (with)," the petition says.
"Other evidence from Maharashtra disclosed that by vote-stealing in some seats of Pune and Nasik, more votes had been cast in the EVMs than the number of existing voters, and BJP won those seats."
Sharma's petition recalls that the apex court had on October 8, 2013, while hearing another petition, asked the poll panel to examine the possibility of using audit trail machines. But, it alleges, "due to political conspiracy", the Election Commission "deliberately" avoided their use during the recent elections.
It further claims that whenever and wherever the audit trail machines have been used, they have developed snags, indicating that they are not reliable, either.
Sharma told the court that more than 30 of America's 50 states had already banned electronic voting machines, as had Germany.
According to the petition, the poll panel routinely declares that the voting machines are tamper-proof but despite many complaints of tampering - including those from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand recently - the machines have never been subjected to tests at any scientific lab.
Sharma has also cited a statement attributed to BJP veteran L.K. Advani in 2010, which has him saying that the voting machines are not tamper-proof.
Congress politician Digvijaya Singh, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have all alleged that voting machines were rigged to benefit the BJP during the recent Assembly polls.
"When tampered by the criminals for 'vote-stealing' by changing voting numbers in favour of a political party for grabbing power, it's a fraud upon the basic structure of democratic constitutional systems which is not only liable to be stopped but also investigated and prosecuted, to restore popular faith in democratic systems," Sharma's petition says.
