The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 26) rejected a petition seeking to replace electronic voting machines (EVMs) with paper ballots to conduct elections.
Rejecting the petition, the two-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath and PB Varale said calls to replace EVMs with ballots are only made after losing elections.
“What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered,” said the bench, according to PTI.
The SC’s rejection of the plea seeking the replacement of EVMs with ballots came on the same day Congress President Mallikarjuna Kharge reiterated the call for such a move. This is part of the Congress-led Opposition’s yearslong campaign against EVMs.
For years, the Opposition has alleged —without evidence— that EVMs are being systematically manipulated in favour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After almost every election that they have lost, the Opposition parties have blamed the EVMs for the BJP’s victory without convincing evidence and have called for elections to be conducted by paper ballots as was the case before the introduction of EVMs. The Congress party has spearheaded such calls.
When the petitioner, KA Paul, cited leaders across parties as complaining about EVMs, the SC noted, “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.”
In addition to seeking the replacement of EVMs with ballots, the petition also sought other directions from the SC, such as an order for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if they are found guilty of distributing money, liquor, or other stuff to attract votes.
While making his case, Paul said that the ECI said in June thar Rs 9,000 crore were seized in the 2024 elections, the SC asked how replacing EVMs with ballots would solve the problem of corruption.
“How does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant? If you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?” said the SC, as per PTI.
Link to article –
SC rejects plea seeking paper ballots in India: ‘If you win, EVMs aren’t tampered…’
