EVM VVPAT : Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response On Plea To Introduce Technology To Aid Voters With Visual Disability

A Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela Trivedi also granted two weeks’ time to the petitioner to file rejoinder in the matter.

The plea moved by petitioner, Akshay Bajad, aims to have image text to speech (ITTS) conversion software be added to the Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units used for elections, with audio verification facilities for persons with sight disabilities.

The matter is expected to come up on March 3.

Stating that it has always been looking to have an inclusive approach when it comes to elections, the Election Commission of India (first respondent) said that it had undertaken several measures to that end, in its counter affidavit which was filed earlier.

The ECI’s affidavit citied security reasons and logistical issues as challenges to have ITTS conversion software embedded in the EVMs.

“Attaching any external device or installing ITTS software to the existing model of VVPATs would only lead to compromised scenario on the safety and security of the machines.”

Further, it said that EVMs/VVPATs are stand alone machines and no external device can be added/installed to it. Also, any facility of audio feedback has the potential to compromise of the secrecy of voting, the affidavit stated.

“EVMs/VVPATs have one-time programmable chip and therefore, it is not feasible to change the software or install ITTS software in the existing EVMs/VVPATs”, argued ECI.

Case Title: Akshay Bajad vs ECI

Click Here To Read/Download Order