SC orders Center to file response to PIL on totalizer

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Election Commission to file a response to a PIL in connection with the over use of totalizer and a possible data leak.

The totalizer is a machine that is used in addition with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) meant to facilitate the counting of the votes. The machine is enabled to collate the votes of 14 EVMs simultaneously.

The apex court has given the Center two weeks time to file a report.

The Union government of India had earlier told the Supreme Court that they are willing to agree with the measures to strengthen elections.

They further told, "There are several apprehensions regarding the use of Totalizer (machines)".

The totalizer was initially proposed in 2017 in an attempt to prevent the disclosure of the voting patterns across polling stations during the process of counting which might lead to any pre-poll intimidation or post-poll victimization by any candidate.

Earlier in 2017, a team comprising of the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Former Def. min Manohar Parrikar, Nitin Gadkari and Shankar Prasad was formed to give their recommendations regarding the use of totalizer machines.