The bench, comprising of justices Arun Mishra and MR Shah, refused to entertain the PIL filed by Tech 4 All, a Chennai based organisation, observing that a larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, has already dealt with the matter and passed an order.
“The aspersions in clips being used in media merely pertain to the storage or movement of reserve unused EVMs. However, any case of lapse, even in the handling of reserve EVMs, is thoroughly investigated and disciplinary action taken against the officers responsible,” said the Election Commission.
“I'm really impressed with the electronic voting machines (EVMs). We don't have those in Australia. I think even with paper ballots which we have in Australia, it's always a case where there's a risk to integrity in any system. VVPAT is actually a good development,” said Sidhu.
There were reports of EVM malfunctioning from a few areas with Saharanpur reporting the most number of EVM glitches.
The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are in the news yet again for developing glitches in the state as informed by the Chief Election Officer of Andhra Pradesh where more than 350 EVMs have broken down.
A few opposition parties have put forward the argument that even the most developed countries have shunned the EVMs and have reverted to the ballot paper system following complaints of EVM malfunctioning.
In the past the Commission has invited critics to prove their charges against EVMs, but there was always a challenging, confrontationist tenor to its “invitations”.
Interestingly, National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah had, during the mega anti-BJP rally in Kolkata on Saturday, called the EVM the "chor machine" and demanded that the ballot paper system is brought back.
A senior EC official said on Monday evening, “ECI firmly stands by the empirical facts about foolproof nature of the ECI EVMs deployed in elections in India. Whereas, ECI has been wary of becoming a party to this motivated slugfest, ECI maintains that its EVMs are foolproof.”
"ECI firmly stands by the empirical facts about foolproof nature of the ECI EVMs deployed in elections in India," Election Commission of India says in a statement
