DMK Party Moves Madras High Court Questioning New Design Of Electronic Voting Machines, Says Manipulations Possible

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party has approached the Madras High Court questioning the design of the third generation M3 Electronic Voting Machines ahead of the upcoming Assembly Elections 2024. The plea, moved through the Organisation Secretary RS Bharathi, says that the present model, in which the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is placed between the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit could pave the way for discrepancies and corrupt practices in the election. The plea also says that fixing the Symbol Loading Unit (SLU) in the VVPAT is in clear violation of the Conduct of Election Rules. The plea says that as per the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, the Balloting Unit and the Control Unit of the Electronic Voting Machine have to be placed in direct contact with each other and thus placing the VVPAT printer in between the two is violative of Rules 49A, 49B (4), 49E and 49T of the 1961 Rules. The plea says that by placing the printer in the middle, the printer will be sending the data to the Control Unit and thus the recording of the vote will be dependent on the printing unit and there would be no guarantee that the input signal received by the printer from the balloting unit would be maintained. Thus, the plea says that such fixation could pave the way for corruption of data affecting the integrity. The plea further points out that while Rule 56D of the Conduct of Election Rules 1961 mandates the Election Commission of India to issue guidelines governing the application for counting of printed paper slips, no such guidelines have been issued so far giving unguided and untrammeled discretion to the returning officer to decide such applications arbitrarily. Further, since no appeal has been provided for under Rule 56D, the powers given to the returning officer is unreasonable.The plea also says that no procedure has been laid down for approval of the Electronic Voting Machines by the Election Commission of India and the absence of procedure renders existing process of approval of EVMs arbitrary and non-transparent. The DMK has thus asked the court to direct Election Commission of India to frame guidelines laying down a procedure for approving the Electronic Voting Machines and a further direction not to place the printer between the Balloting Unit and the Control UInit contrary to the existing rules.

DMK Party Moves Madras High Court Questioning New Design Of Electronic Voting Machines, Says Manipulations Possible

Upasana Sajeev

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