SHAILESHKUMAR NAGJIBHAI PANSURIYA Vs. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . This petition is filed for a direction to the Election Commission of India to make it mandatory to count all VVPAT slips alongwith the counting of votes through EVMs in the ongoing State Assembly elections. The petitioner is a resident of the State and is concerned about the purity and proper conduct of such elections. His prime concern is that there is clear and distinct possibility of tampering the recording of votes in EVMs. In order to ensure conduct of free and fair elections and to eliminate any such possibility as also to remove any doubts in the minds of public, the Election Commission of India should ensure that all slips secured in the boxes through VVPATs should be subjected to counting parallely with the electronic counting through EVMs. In this regard, the petitioner points out that the Election Commission of India has issued a press release dated 20th May,2017 in which it was declared that:

(2.) The Counsel for the petitioner during the previous hearing on 7th December,2017 had submitted that if not all the paper slips atleast 25% of the votes should be counted through VVPAT to ensure total transparency. It was also submitted that despite the declaration of Election Commission made in the press release dated 20th May, 2017 no framework for counting a certain percentage of votes through VVPAT was set up. We had while issuing notice to the Election Commission of India on 7th December, 2017 in our order highlighted this aspect.

(3.) In response to the notice the Election Commission has appeared through legal representatives. We have heard learned Advocates for both the sides. Shri B.T.Rao for the petitioner highlighted that there have been complaints about the functioning of EVMs during the first phase of voting which took place on 9th December,2017. He submitted that complaints have been received suggesting that the EVMs can be connected to the mobile phones through Bluetooth leaving a possibility of tampering. He pointed out that on 08th December, 2017 the Election Commission of India issued guidelines providing for counting of votes through VVPAT in one booth of every constituency selected on random basis. However, according to the Counsel this would not provide sufficient safeguard against possible tampering and manual counting should be ordered atleast in 25% of the booths of every constituency.