The Supreme Court, on November 26, 2024, dismissed a petition seeking the removal of electronic voting machines and the return to paper ballots, saying it was hypocritical to cry foul when one loses in the political arena.
바카라EVMs are tampered with when you lose and fine if you win?바카라 asked Justice Vikram Nath as he dismissed a petition filed by evangelist K.A. Paul, who wanted the court to pass a judicial order for India to use paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines.
Justice Nath added that the petitioner wanted to turn the court into a 바카라political arena.바카라 However, Paul insisted that he was playing no politics and pointed out in his petition that the paper ballot system was followed in countries worldwide. 바카라You바카라re hearing my petition on Constitution Day,바카라 the petitioner said.
After its loss last week, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has planned a national protest against the credibility of EVMs, which it blames for its defeat. The MVA바카라the Congress and the Shiv Sena and NCP factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar바카라reportedly also plans to approach the court asking for a return to ballot papers.
Electronic Voting Machines have long been a contentious issue in India, with many attributing the BJP바카라s landslide wins in several states to 바카라rigged바카라 machines. However, earlier this year, the apex court upheld the EVM polls while refusing to revive paper ballots. In its March 2017 issue, The Crumbling Edifice of Caste Calculus, Outlook examined the claims around the tampering of EVMs.
바카라The weakness of the ballot paper system is well known and documented. Keeping in view the vast size of the Indian electorate of nearly 97 crore, the number of candidates who contest the elections, the number of polling booths where voting is held, and the problems faced with ballot papers, we would be undoing the electoral reforms by directing reintroduction of the ballot papers. EVMs offer significant advantages,바카라 the Supreme Court said in its April 2024 verdict.
At the time of the controversial EVM case before SC, Madhur Sharma had examined the controversies around EVMs for Outlook.
In an affidavit filed before the SC in September 2023, the Election Commission of India had assured the court that the machines were air-gapped machines that could not be tampered with or hacked into. EVMs are 바카라totally stand-alone machines having one-time programmable chips바카라, the ECI said in its 450-page affidavit.
