What about Supreme Court Directions given in Oct, 2013 ?
Why ECI reply dated 11 /03/ 2017 on objection raised by BSP in respect manipulation of EVM is silent on Supreme Court judgement of October , 2013 ? Is ECI working under pressure of BJP and Modi ? ECi need to reply further .
We are giving below copy of ECI reply
ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA
NIRVACHAN SADAN, ASHOKA ROAD, NEW DELHI-IIOOOI
No.51/8/1 6/9/2017-EMS
To,
Dated: 11 March,2017
Subject:
Sir,
Shri Satish Chandra Misra,
Natioual General Secretary,
4, Curudwara Rakabganj Road,
New Delhi-l10001.
concerns raised about manipuration of EVMs by experts of technology and software field hired by BJp -reg.
I am directed to refer to your letter dated I1.03.2017, on the subject matter, and to
state that tlre Commission has duly considered your said letter. It is stated that the Commission has
been successfully Lrsing EVMs since 2000 in every election in the Country and have full
confidence on the absolute credibility of ECl-EVMs.Credibility of EVMs has been successfullv
recognized by the CoLrrts on several occasions.
ECI-EVMs were endorsed by a technical expert subcommittee appointed by the
Government of India at the initiative of the Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms in 1990.
This Comrnittee was headed by Prof. S. Sarnpath, then Chairman, Recruitment and Assessment
centre (RAC), Defence Research and Development organization, with prof. p.v. Indiresan, then
with IIT' Delhi and Dr. c. Rao Kasarbada. the then Director, Electronics Research and
Developrnent Center, Trivandrum as members. Subsequently, the Commission has been
consulting a group of technical experts corrprising (Late) Prof. p.v. Indiresan (member of the
earlier cornmittee), Prof. D.T. Shahani and Prof. A.K. Agarwala of IIT Delhi, on all EVM related
technical issues' ln November, 2010, the commission has expanded its Technical Expert
committee by including two more experts, namely, Prof D.K. Sharma from Department of
Electrical Engineerirrg, IIT of Mumbai and Prof. RajatMoona from Depaftment of Computer
Science ard Engineeri,g, IIT of Kanpur (,orv Director General, C-DAC).
Since their introduction in the year 1982 on pilot basis, EVMs were used in all byeelections/Ceneral
Elections to Parliarnentarl, & Legislative Assemblies held since 2000 and in
country rvide General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 2004 arrd 2009. The use of EVMs was
preceded by long rariging political. technical and administrative consultations. Independent
committccs and Technical Experts have endorsed the machine time and again. various preventive
and precrtrtionary steps have been put in place by the Commission for the operation, maintenance
and storrqe of the EVMs. The Election Commission has firm conviction and complete satisfaction
that EV,N'ls cannot be tampered with. The Election Commission of India believes that the use of
EVMs has heiped to prevent scveral electoratr malpractices and resulted in the more efficient
conduct of elcctions.
In the past, various Courts have upheld the use of EVMs. The Madras Lligh Couft, after
elaborate co,sideratron of the issue in a batch of petitions in 2001, rejected allegations that the
EVMs could be tampered with. In tire year 2002, the Kerala Fligh Court upheld the use of these
machines. The Kamataka High Cour1, in its ruling in2004, hailed the EVM as 'a national pride'.
The Mumbai High court in a decision in 2005 came to similar conclusion aftcr examining some
experts.
Technical Security of EVMs used by ECI
(a) The machine is both mechanically and electronicaily protected to prevent any
tampering/manipulation. The plogramme (software) used in these machines is burnt into a
One Time programmable/Masked chip (Hardware) so that it cannot be altered or tampered
with. Further these machines are not networked either by wire or by wireless to any other
machine or system. Therefore, there is no possibility of its data comrption.
(b) The software of EVMs is developed in-house by BEL a Defence Ministry PSU and ECIL
an Atomic Energy Ministry's PSU independently'
(c) The vote can be recorded by an elector from the ballot unit only after the Presiding Officer
enables the ballot on the Control Unit, the machine does not receive any signal from
outside at anY time.
(d) During production in the factory, functional testing is done by production group as per the
laiddownqualityplanandperformancetestprocedures.
(e) Samples of EVMs from production batches are regularly checked for functionality by
euality Assurance Group, which is an independent unit within the manufacturing firms.
(f) Certain additional features were introduced in 2006 in ECI-EVMs such as dynamic coding
between Ballot Unit and Control Unit, installation of real time clock, installation of full
display system and date and time stamping of every key pressing in EVM'
Complete Procedural SecuritY
The Commission has put in place an elaborate administrative system of measures and
procedural checks-and-balances aimed at prevention of any possible misuse or procedural
lapses.These safeguards are implemented transparently with the involvement of political parties,
candidates and their representatives at every stage to build their confidence on efficacy and
reliability of EVMs, as they are actually representatives of electors. These safeguards are: -
(a) Before every election a first level checking (FLC) is done for every EVM to be used in the
election by the engineers of the manufacturers in the presence of political parties'
represeiltatives. Any malfunctioning EVM is kept separately and is not used in the
election.
(b) Manufacturers certify at the time of FLC that all components in the EVM are original.
After this, the plastic cabinet of Control Unit of the EVM is sealed using a "Pink Paper
Seal", which is signed by representatives of political parties. After this, the plastic
cabinet of control unit of the EVMs cannot be opened and there is no access to any
component of inside of EVMs.
(c) At the time of FLC, at least 1000 votes are cast by thc representatives on So/"of EVMs
randomly selected by them. A printout of the results of mock poll as well as a sequential
print out of every vote polled during the mock poll at the time of First Level Checking of
EVMs are taken out for at least 5o/o of EVMs and shown to the representatives of political
parties. Representatives of political parties are allowed to pick machines randomly for this
purpose. In rest of the machines, number of votes polled during the mock poll are to the
satisfaction of the representatives of political parties. Representatives of political parties
are allowed to do mock poll themselves.
(d) Subsequently, EVMs are further randomized twice once for allocation of machines to
assembly constituencies and second to polling stations in the presence of candidates or
their representatives before they are distributed for use in individual polling stations.
Such lists of EVM containing serial number of EVM allocated to particular polling station
are provided to the political par[ies/candidates.
(e) Candidates and their representatives are allowed to conduct mock polls on EVMs at
the time of candidate setting and also before the actual poll on the poll day to satisfy
themselves about the satisfactory functioning of EVMs being used.
(f) Once the candidate setting is done the Ballot Unit of the EVM is also sealed with
thread/Pink Paper seals so that nobody has access to the inside of the Ballot Unit too.
These Pink seals also bear signatures of representatives of political parties/candidate.
(g) A printout of the results of mock poll as well as a sequential print out of every vote polled
during the mock poll at the time of Preparation of EVMs and candidate setting are also
taken out for at least 5o/o of EVMs and shown to the representatives of political parties.
Representatives of political parties are allowed to pick machines randomly for this
purpose.
(h) On the poll day, a mock poll by casting at least 50 votes is conducted at every polling
stations in. the presence of the representatives of the candidates/polling agents with
their signature and a certificate to that effect is obtained from every Presiding
0fficer.
(i)Afterthemockpollisover,anotherthreadsealan<lgleenpapersealsareputontheEVM
to block access to all buttons on the EVM' except those' which are used for the conduct of
poll.Thesepap€rsealsandthreadsealsareallowedtotresignedbythepollingagents.
Afterthepollisover,thePresidingofficerpressesthe..Close,,buttonontheEVMinthe
presenceofpollingagents.Thereafter,novotescanbepolledintheEVM"
fi)Afterthis,theentireEVMissealed.Candidatesandtheiragentsareallowedtoput
theirsignaturesontheseals,whichtheycancheckfortheintactnessofthesealbefore
counting.
(k) In addition to this, the strong rooms where EVMs are stored' pending for counting are also
seared and watched round the clock. The candidates and their representatives are
a*owed to put their own seals on the strong rooms. They also allowed to keep a watch
round the clock on the strong room'
(l) The representatives of candidates of all politicar parties are given opportunity to participate
in all the above occasion of FLc, preparation of EvMs before poll, mock poll' etc'
Judicial Pronouncements .r\r\r 1^^. *oen r: High courts in the
(a) The issue of possible tampering of EVM has been raised before vanous
past[EPNo.2goflgggbeforetheKarnatakaHighCourt,W.P.No.3346of200landother
connectedpetitionsbeforetheMadrasHighCourt,andEPNo.lof2004beforetheBombay
High court (Nagpur Bench)1. Au the three High courts after going into arl aspects of the
technologicar soundness and the administrative measures involved in the use of EvMs at
erections in India, have held that the EvMs in India are credibre, reriable and totally
tamperproof. The Hon,ble Karnataka High court held that "This invention is undoubtedly a
great achievement in the electronic and computer technology and a national pride"' Both the
Karnataka High court and the Madras High court observed that use of EvMs in election has
several advantages over the system of ballot paper/ballot box election- The Hon'b'e Madras
HighCourtalsocategoricallyruledoutanyquestionoftamperingoftheE,VMs.The
followingobservationsmadebytheMadrasHighCourtmaybetakennoteof:
.,There is also no question of introducing any virus or bugs for the reason that the EVMs cannot
becomparedtopersonalcomputers.Theprogrammingincomputers,assuggested,hasno
bearing with the EvMs. The computer wourd have inherent limitations having connections
through lnternet and by their very design, they may allow the alteration of the programme but
the EvMs are independent units and the programme in EVM is entirely a different system'"
(b)InoneofthecasesaSdirectedbytheHon,bleHighCourtofKeralainElectionPetition
No.4/200l,theprocessofdetectingvotescastbyimpersonatorswascarriedoutbeforethe
Hon,ble Court in the case of General Election from 125-Evavipuram Assembly Constituency
.in Kerala in 200i. The High court in its order dated 6.2.2002 had recorded its appreciation on
the efficiency of the mechanism.
,fhe judgment of the Kerala I{igh court in the said Election
petition was upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in civil Appeal (AIR 2003 sC227l)'
ThefullCommissionmaderepeatedvisittoUttarPradeshandUttarakhandandmetthe
representatives of all parties, including your party' No one raised any objection with regard to
functioning of EVMs at these meetings. The commission has thus not received any complaints
during entire process of erections in uttar pradesh and uttrakhand with regard to your allegation of
grave maniPulation of EVMs'
Asexplainedabove,theCommissionhasputinplaceelaboratetechnicaland
administrative safeguards to ensule error-free functioning of E'vMs in elections'
The commission is thus fully satisfied with the tamper proof functioning of the E'cIEVMs.
Although the commission has offered opportunities more than once to those alleging the
tamperab,ity of EvM, no one has been abre to demonstrate to the commission that the EVM used
in the country's election process, can be manipulated or tampered with'
The prescribed administrative process has been fully complied with in uttar Pradesh and
uttrakhand erections in the presence of the representatives of political parties/candidates'
The commission has, therefore, not found any merit in your allegations and the prayers
made in your letter under reply are not legally tenable'
tully
'usudan GuPta)
Under SecretarY
NIRVACHAN SADAN, ASHOKA ROAD, NEW DELHI-IIOOOI
No.51/8/1 6/9/2017-EMS
To,
Dated: 11 March,2017
Subject:
Sir,
Shri Satish Chandra Misra,
Natioual General Secretary,
4, Curudwara Rakabganj Road,
New Delhi-l10001.
concerns raised about manipuration of EVMs by experts of technology and software field hired by BJp -reg.
I am directed to refer to your letter dated I1.03.2017, on the subject matter, and to
state that tlre Commission has duly considered your said letter. It is stated that the Commission has
been successfully Lrsing EVMs since 2000 in every election in the Country and have full
confidence on the absolute credibility of ECl-EVMs.Credibility of EVMs has been successfullv
recognized by the CoLrrts on several occasions.
ECI-EVMs were endorsed by a technical expert subcommittee appointed by the
Government of India at the initiative of the Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms in 1990.
This Comrnittee was headed by Prof. S. Sarnpath, then Chairman, Recruitment and Assessment
centre (RAC), Defence Research and Development organization, with prof. p.v. Indiresan, then
with IIT' Delhi and Dr. c. Rao Kasarbada. the then Director, Electronics Research and
Developrnent Center, Trivandrum as members. Subsequently, the Commission has been
consulting a group of technical experts corrprising (Late) Prof. p.v. Indiresan (member of the
earlier cornmittee), Prof. D.T. Shahani and Prof. A.K. Agarwala of IIT Delhi, on all EVM related
technical issues' ln November, 2010, the commission has expanded its Technical Expert
committee by including two more experts, namely, Prof D.K. Sharma from Department of
Electrical Engineerirrg, IIT of Mumbai and Prof. RajatMoona from Depaftment of Computer
Science ard Engineeri,g, IIT of Kanpur (,orv Director General, C-DAC).
Since their introduction in the year 1982 on pilot basis, EVMs were used in all byeelections/Ceneral
Elections to Parliarnentarl, & Legislative Assemblies held since 2000 and in
country rvide General Elections to the Lok Sabha in 2004 arrd 2009. The use of EVMs was
preceded by long rariging political. technical and administrative consultations. Independent
committccs and Technical Experts have endorsed the machine time and again. various preventive
and precrtrtionary steps have been put in place by the Commission for the operation, maintenance
and storrqe of the EVMs. The Election Commission has firm conviction and complete satisfaction
that EV,N'ls cannot be tampered with. The Election Commission of India believes that the use of
EVMs has heiped to prevent scveral electoratr malpractices and resulted in the more efficient
conduct of elcctions.
In the past, various Courts have upheld the use of EVMs. The Madras Lligh Couft, after
elaborate co,sideratron of the issue in a batch of petitions in 2001, rejected allegations that the
EVMs could be tampered with. In tire year 2002, the Kerala Fligh Court upheld the use of these
machines. The Kamataka High Cour1, in its ruling in2004, hailed the EVM as 'a national pride'.
The Mumbai High court in a decision in 2005 came to similar conclusion aftcr examining some
experts.
Technical Security of EVMs used by ECI
(a) The machine is both mechanically and electronicaily protected to prevent any
tampering/manipulation. The plogramme (software) used in these machines is burnt into a
One Time programmable/Masked chip (Hardware) so that it cannot be altered or tampered
with. Further these machines are not networked either by wire or by wireless to any other
machine or system. Therefore, there is no possibility of its data comrption.
(b) The software of EVMs is developed in-house by BEL a Defence Ministry PSU and ECIL
an Atomic Energy Ministry's PSU independently'
(c) The vote can be recorded by an elector from the ballot unit only after the Presiding Officer
enables the ballot on the Control Unit, the machine does not receive any signal from
outside at anY time.
(d) During production in the factory, functional testing is done by production group as per the
laiddownqualityplanandperformancetestprocedures.
(e) Samples of EVMs from production batches are regularly checked for functionality by
euality Assurance Group, which is an independent unit within the manufacturing firms.
(f) Certain additional features were introduced in 2006 in ECI-EVMs such as dynamic coding
between Ballot Unit and Control Unit, installation of real time clock, installation of full
display system and date and time stamping of every key pressing in EVM'
Complete Procedural SecuritY
The Commission has put in place an elaborate administrative system of measures and
procedural checks-and-balances aimed at prevention of any possible misuse or procedural
lapses.These safeguards are implemented transparently with the involvement of political parties,
candidates and their representatives at every stage to build their confidence on efficacy and
reliability of EVMs, as they are actually representatives of electors. These safeguards are: -
(a) Before every election a first level checking (FLC) is done for every EVM to be used in the
election by the engineers of the manufacturers in the presence of political parties'
represeiltatives. Any malfunctioning EVM is kept separately and is not used in the
election.
(b) Manufacturers certify at the time of FLC that all components in the EVM are original.
After this, the plastic cabinet of Control Unit of the EVM is sealed using a "Pink Paper
Seal", which is signed by representatives of political parties. After this, the plastic
cabinet of control unit of the EVMs cannot be opened and there is no access to any
component of inside of EVMs.
(c) At the time of FLC, at least 1000 votes are cast by thc representatives on So/"of EVMs
randomly selected by them. A printout of the results of mock poll as well as a sequential
print out of every vote polled during the mock poll at the time of First Level Checking of
EVMs are taken out for at least 5o/o of EVMs and shown to the representatives of political
parties. Representatives of political parties are allowed to pick machines randomly for this
purpose. In rest of the machines, number of votes polled during the mock poll are to the
satisfaction of the representatives of political parties. Representatives of political parties
are allowed to do mock poll themselves.
(d) Subsequently, EVMs are further randomized twice once for allocation of machines to
assembly constituencies and second to polling stations in the presence of candidates or
their representatives before they are distributed for use in individual polling stations.
Such lists of EVM containing serial number of EVM allocated to particular polling station
are provided to the political par[ies/candidates.
(e) Candidates and their representatives are allowed to conduct mock polls on EVMs at
the time of candidate setting and also before the actual poll on the poll day to satisfy
themselves about the satisfactory functioning of EVMs being used.
(f) Once the candidate setting is done the Ballot Unit of the EVM is also sealed with
thread/Pink Paper seals so that nobody has access to the inside of the Ballot Unit too.
These Pink seals also bear signatures of representatives of political parties/candidate.
(g) A printout of the results of mock poll as well as a sequential print out of every vote polled
during the mock poll at the time of Preparation of EVMs and candidate setting are also
taken out for at least 5o/o of EVMs and shown to the representatives of political parties.
Representatives of political parties are allowed to pick machines randomly for this
purpose.
(h) On the poll day, a mock poll by casting at least 50 votes is conducted at every polling
stations in. the presence of the representatives of the candidates/polling agents with
their signature and a certificate to that effect is obtained from every Presiding
0fficer.
(i)Afterthemockpollisover,anotherthreadsealan<lgleenpapersealsareputontheEVM
to block access to all buttons on the EVM' except those' which are used for the conduct of
poll.Thesepap€rsealsandthreadsealsareallowedtotresignedbythepollingagents.
Afterthepollisover,thePresidingofficerpressesthe..Close,,buttonontheEVMinthe
presenceofpollingagents.Thereafter,novotescanbepolledintheEVM"
fi)Afterthis,theentireEVMissealed.Candidatesandtheiragentsareallowedtoput
theirsignaturesontheseals,whichtheycancheckfortheintactnessofthesealbefore
counting.
(k) In addition to this, the strong rooms where EVMs are stored' pending for counting are also
seared and watched round the clock. The candidates and their representatives are
a*owed to put their own seals on the strong rooms. They also allowed to keep a watch
round the clock on the strong room'
(l) The representatives of candidates of all politicar parties are given opportunity to participate
in all the above occasion of FLc, preparation of EvMs before poll, mock poll' etc'
Judicial Pronouncements .r\r\r 1^^. *oen r: High courts in the
(a) The issue of possible tampering of EVM has been raised before vanous
past[EPNo.2goflgggbeforetheKarnatakaHighCourt,W.P.No.3346of200landother
connectedpetitionsbeforetheMadrasHighCourt,andEPNo.lof2004beforetheBombay
High court (Nagpur Bench)1. Au the three High courts after going into arl aspects of the
technologicar soundness and the administrative measures involved in the use of EvMs at
erections in India, have held that the EvMs in India are credibre, reriable and totally
tamperproof. The Hon,ble Karnataka High court held that "This invention is undoubtedly a
great achievement in the electronic and computer technology and a national pride"' Both the
Karnataka High court and the Madras High court observed that use of EvMs in election has
several advantages over the system of ballot paper/ballot box election- The Hon'b'e Madras
HighCourtalsocategoricallyruledoutanyquestionoftamperingoftheE,VMs.The
followingobservationsmadebytheMadrasHighCourtmaybetakennoteof:
.,There is also no question of introducing any virus or bugs for the reason that the EVMs cannot
becomparedtopersonalcomputers.Theprogrammingincomputers,assuggested,hasno
bearing with the EvMs. The computer wourd have inherent limitations having connections
through lnternet and by their very design, they may allow the alteration of the programme but
the EvMs are independent units and the programme in EVM is entirely a different system'"
(b)InoneofthecasesaSdirectedbytheHon,bleHighCourtofKeralainElectionPetition
No.4/200l,theprocessofdetectingvotescastbyimpersonatorswascarriedoutbeforethe
Hon,ble Court in the case of General Election from 125-Evavipuram Assembly Constituency
.in Kerala in 200i. The High court in its order dated 6.2.2002 had recorded its appreciation on
the efficiency of the mechanism.
,fhe judgment of the Kerala I{igh court in the said Election
petition was upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in civil Appeal (AIR 2003 sC227l)'
ThefullCommissionmaderepeatedvisittoUttarPradeshandUttarakhandandmetthe
representatives of all parties, including your party' No one raised any objection with regard to
functioning of EVMs at these meetings. The commission has thus not received any complaints
during entire process of erections in uttar pradesh and uttrakhand with regard to your allegation of
grave maniPulation of EVMs'
Asexplainedabove,theCommissionhasputinplaceelaboratetechnicaland
administrative safeguards to ensule error-free functioning of E'vMs in elections'
The commission is thus fully satisfied with the tamper proof functioning of the E'cIEVMs.
Although the commission has offered opportunities more than once to those alleging the
tamperab,ity of EvM, no one has been abre to demonstrate to the commission that the EVM used
in the country's election process, can be manipulated or tampered with'
The prescribed administrative process has been fully complied with in uttar Pradesh and
uttrakhand erections in the presence of the representatives of political parties/candidates'
The commission has, therefore, not found any merit in your allegations and the prayers
made in your letter under reply are not legally tenable'
tully
'usudan GuPta)
Under SecretarY
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