EC tells SC, EVMs are tamper-proof and credible

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were credible, reliable and tamper-proof. In a fresh affidavit submitted to the court, the commission said EVMs with voter verifiable paper audit trails will be available by September next year, subject to production exigencies.

Such machines have already been used in the previous assembly elections as part of an exercise to introduce them in phases, it said. While the EC has said EVMs with paper audit trails will be ready for the next general election, scheduled in 2019, it was non-committal about using them in the assembly polls scheduled in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in December.

The apex court had asked the EC at the previous hearing whether it intended to introduce paper audit trails in the next round of assembly polls and the commission had sought time to file a reply. The court acted on a petition filed by a Congress worker seeking the use of paper audit trails in the assembly polls.

The commission dismissed allegations by various political parties that EVMs used in the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly elections were tampered with, saying it not an iota of evidence or credible information has been provided to back such claims. “Till date, it has never been shown or proven that EVMs contain any malware or are vulnerable to hacking,” the commission said. No defective or malfunctioning EVM is ever used in the electoral process, it said.

The EC urged political parties to stop challenging the credibility of EVMs every time they lose an election, saying it erodes the faith of voters in the process. The commission said it technologically and administratively impossible to interfere with the functioning of an EVM.

“An EVM used by the commission is a standalone, non-networked, one-time programmable machine, which is neither computer-controlled, nor connected to the internet or any network and hence, cannot be ‘hacked,’” it said.