Can we provide guidance against EVMs based on suspicion? the Supreme Court asked

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked whether it can issue directions on electronic voting machines (EVMs) merely on the basis of suspicion of hacking and tampering, despite no concrete evidence.

A bench of judges Sanjiv Khanna And Dipankar Datta heard petitions seeking directions to maintain Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during elections.

The petitions also raised doubts about whether EVMs are hack-proof.

However, the Court on Wednesday received clarity from the Election Commission of India (ECI) that the flash memory of the microcontrollers in EVMs cannot be reprogrammed.

“Can we issue a mandamus based on a presumption? The report you are basing yourself on says there is no hacking yet. We are not the controlling authority of any other constitutional authority. We cannot control the elections. The judgment of the Supreme Court The court said (use) VVPAT and it was followed. But where it said all slips match, it says 5 percent. Now let’s see if there are other candidates besides these 5 percent who say there are cases of abuse.’ The Court told the petitioners.

One of the petitioners has prayed that every EVM vote be counted against the VVPAT slips.

Another plea by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) stated that VVPAT slips should be added to the votes cast through EVMs so that citizens can confirm that their vote has been counted ‘as recorded’ and ‘recorded as cast’.

The Supreme Court had reserved its judgment in the case on April 18.

The Bench had noted at the time that not everything can be viewed with suspicion and that the petitioners need not be critical of every aspect of EVM.

The matter was then listed today for certain clarifications.

During today’s hearing, the court heard the following from the EBI:

– “Is the microcontroller installed in the control unit or in the VVPAT? Please confirm whether the microcontroller is one-time programmable or not.”

– “Then you mean the symbol loading units. How many are available?”

– “Then the limitation for election petitions is 30 days, therefore the storage is 45 days. But the limitation is 45 days under Section 81 of the People’s Representation Act… so the period for keeping EVMS should be extended .”

Regarding the first question, the ECI lawyer said:

“All three units, voting units, vvpat and the chip… all have their own microcontrollers and these microcontrollers are housed in a secure detection module for unauthorized access and cannot be accessed. All microcontrollers are one-time programmable. It is burned when it is inserted it can never be changed. For loading symbols we have two manufacturers one is ECI and Bharat Electronics.

“Can you get more SLUs… more manufacturers,’ the Court asked.

“The availability of components won’t take much time. But to make these machines… it will take a month,” said the ECI lawyer.

Regarding the question of storage of EVMs, the ECI said:

“All machines are kept in a safe for 45 days and then the election secretary is written to file an election petition and if the safe is not opened, that room is kept locked and sealed. The control unit stores the interrogation data so that it is sealed. During commissioning, all three units are also sealed with a pink seal. VVPAT will also be sealed and signature will be taken from all polling stations.”

However, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of one of the petitioners, said the flash memory of Micro Control Units can be reprogrammed.

“We downloaded what the micro control units contain. It has flash memory which is reprogrammable and I also downloaded from wikipedia what firmware is. Firmware is stored non-volatile memory. We also went to NXP’s site. And this is what it says about the microcontrollers. This microcontroller also has a flash memory and to say that it is not reprogrammable is incorrect And that is also what the citizen committee said after examining such machines around the world. he argued.

The Court then specifically asked the ECI the same.

“Can it be reprogrammed?” asked the Bank.

The ECI lawyer made it clear that this cannot be the case.

“Not at all,” he said.

“Okay, so this is absolute.” the Court responded.

“If the VVPAT has entered a malicious program, then,” Bhushan asked.

“We understood that argument… The flash memory that is there is not loaded with software but with symbols, that is the standard… don’t judge that now… we have to investigate that,” the Court replied.

“They are not saying that flash memory cannot be programmed. If you are predisposed to a thought process, we cannot help you. We are not here to change your thought process. They are saying that the amount of flash memory is very low. It can store 1024 symbols. Not the software. They say it is agnostic as far as the microcontrollers are concerned. said the bank.

Adding VVPAT slips with EVMs has always been a topic of debate.

Before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, leaders of around 21 opposition political parties had moved the apex court seeking VVPAT verification of at least 50 per cent of all EVMs.

At the time, ECI with VVPAT counted only one random EVM per assembly segment.

On April 8, 2019, the Supreme Court increased this number from 1 to 5 and dismissed the plea. In May 2019, the Court dismissed a plea filed by some technocrats seeking VVPAT verification of all EVMs.