• Source:JND
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Supreme Court EVM-VVPAT Case:  The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission (ECI) whether there exists a punishment for tempering with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) under the law of the land. The observation came while the bench headed by Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking 100 per cent matching of EVM votes to the VVPAT slips.

The bench stated that without the fear of severe punishment, there remains a chance of manipulation of the EVMs. To the question, the counsel for ECI told the court that a 'Breach of office' punishment is currently applicable to the offence.

"Suppose there is some manipulation of what the punishment prescribed. That is a serious thing. There should be a fear that if something wrong is done then there will be punishment," the Court remarked as quoted by Bar and Bench.

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"Breach of office punishment is there," ECI replied.

"We are not on the procedure. There is no specific provision with regard to manipulation done, if at all," Justice Khanna said.

Don't Doubt The System: Court Says

While the apex court asked some tough questions to the poll body, at the same time it asked the petitioners to repose faith in the system.

"My home state West Bengal has more population than Germany. We need to repose some trust and faith on somebody. Do not try to bring down the system like this," Justice Datta said.

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The Court heard several pleas seeking a thorough count of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips during elections. Petitioners suggested that all VVPAT slips should be matched with the EVMs, not just 5 as currently done. The Bench, however, expressed its concern that human interference during polling and counting could cause more problems and biases.

The bench posted the matter for the next hearing on Thursday.