Karnataka High Court Dismisses Petitions for 100% EVM-VVPAT Verification in 2023 Assembly Elections

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed petitions seeking 100% cross-verification of vote count in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections. The decision comes as the Supreme Court is set to pronounce directions on April 24 regarding a batch of similar petitions demanding complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with VVPAT.

During the hearing, the Election Commission of India (ECI) clarified that the microcontrollers in EVMs are one-time programmable and cannot be accessed physically. "The microcontrollers in the Control Unit, Ballot Unit, and VVPAT are one-time programmable and their programs are burned into the memory at the time of manufacturing. They cannot be physically accessed or changed," ECI officials informed the Supreme Court.

The ECI also stated that there have been 41,629 instances of random verification of VVPAT paper slips, and over four crore VVPAT paper slips have been matched. The Supreme Court expressed faith in the ECI's technical data and stated that it cannot control another constitutional authority, but it would look into possible reforms to strengthen the current polling system.

The petitions, filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Abhay Bhakchand Chhajed, and Arun Kumar Aggarwal, argued that measures to increase voter confidence must be adopted, even if it causes a delay in the declaration of results. However, the court expressed reservations about the manual counting process, stating that human intervention can lead to problems.

Why this matters: The decision by the Karnataka High Court and the upcoming Supreme Court directions have significant implications for the integrity and transparency of the electoral process in India. The petitioners' demand for 100% cross-verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips aims to enhance voter confidence and ensure the accuracy of election results.

The current practice is to randomly verify the VVPAT slips of EVMs from five polling booths per assembly segment in a parliamentary constituency, as per a 2019 Supreme Court directive. The court emphasized that the ECI's technical data should be relied upon and rejected claims made by the petitioners that the microcontrollers are reprogrammable. "There was no mismatch shown between the EVM and VVPAT data, and therefore, the court could not control the elections," the bench noted.

Key Takeaways

• Karnataka HC dismissed petitions seeking 100% EVM-VVPAT cross-verification for 2023 polls.
• ECI informed SC that EVM microcontrollers are one-time programmable, can't be accessed.
• Over 41,629 random VVPAT verifications done, 4 crore slips matched, SC expressed faith in ECI.
• Petitioners argued for measures to increase voter confidence, but court expressed reservations.
• SC to pronounce directions on similar petitions demanding 100% EVM-VVPAT cross-verification.