New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to issue directions to the Election Commission on a plea that either paper
printouts be incorporated in EVMs or paper ballot be brought
back as the electronic machines were "not tamper-proof".
A bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice
Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said, "It is difficult for this court to
direct the Election Commission to have a paper trail of
elections conducted through EVMs."
The bench, however, suggested that the Commission could
hold wider consultations with the executive, political parties
and other stake holders on the matter.
"A matter of such magnitude requires a major change in
policy decision," the bench said.
The bench disposed of the plea, saying the petitioner has himself
not alleged any misuse or tampering of the current system but
maintained that the possibility of such an incident cannot be
ruled out.
The petitioner had moved the High Court seeking its directions to
the Commission that a paper trail be incorporated to record
the votes cast through EVMs or the old system of paper ballots
brought back.
He had claimed that EVMs were not tamper proof and lacked
transparency.
European countries like the UK, and the US and Japan had
rejected EVMs due to their "failure" and that they had
preferred paper ballots for their elections, he had said.
The EC had opposed the plea, saying returning to the
paper ballots would not be feasible as it would require
immense expenditure as there were over 73 crore eligible
voters in the country.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 11:01