SC rejects ballot paper plea; Kharge demands revival of traditional voting

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge demands bringing back the traditional method of casting votes

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking return of ballot papers for voting in elections in the country, saying allegations of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVM) raked up only when people lose polls.

 

“What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs are not tampered with. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with),” A bench of justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale remarked.

 

When petitioner-in-person K A Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting. The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit. “Why don't you want to be different from the rest of the world?” asked the bench.

 

Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with. He said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.

 

“When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with,” noted the bench.

 

In April, the top court dismissed a batch of petitions seeking a return to the ballot paper system, terming the suspicion of manipulation of the EVMs “unfounded”. It said the polling devices were “secured” and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.

 

It, however, allowed unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places in poll results to seek verification of microcontroller chips embedded in five per cent EVMs per assembly constituency on a written request upon payment of a fee to the poll panel.

 

Meanwhile, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge at the ‘Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan’ event of the Congress at Talkatora stadium here on Tuesday demanded the return of ballot papers.

 

Kharge urged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to launch a concerted campaign on the scale of Bharat Jodo Yatra to create awareness about it.

 

Referring to the Maharashtra Assembly polls, which the National Democratic Alliance swept and the Congress turned in its worst performance, Kharge alleged that billionaire businessman Gautam Adani had a lot to do with the election as his wealth was at stake.