Delhi HC dismisses plea to stop use of EVMs for elections, imposes Rs 10,000 cost

The Delhi High Court dismissed a plea seeking to direct the Election Commission to stop the use of electronic voting machines (EVM). A bench consisting of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 on petitioner C R Jaya Sukin, who is a lawyer.

The bench of judges also said that lawyer Sukin filed a “publicity interest litigation” based on hearsay and “baseless allegations and averments”.

“Nothing in argued by the petitioner concretely on the working of the EVM. We see no reason to entrain the writ petition,” the court observed on Tuesday.

The laywer had filed the petition was based on four documents, including a news item.

“The petitioner has read the news item and then filed the writ petition without looking at the EVM and working of the EVM…which is approved by the Election Commission and the Parliament,” the court said.

The court futher added that Sukin must file a fresh petition on the issue after conducting research and making proper claims.

The Delhi High court ordered the dismissal of writ petition with a fine of Rs 10,000 to be deposited within four weeks to Delhi State Legal Services Authority.

Appearing in-person, Sukin, argued that “democracy was in danger” by the use of EVM as a machine was prone to be hacked.

He noted that several countries like the US and Japan, have chosen the ballot system for voting and shunned the use of EVMs for their election process.

“Article 324 of the Constitution of India states that polls conducted by Election commission need to be free and fair, and reflect the will of the voters,” Sukin said in his plea.

Urging that EVMs must be replaced across India with traditional ballot papers, he said voting through ballot papers is more reliable and transparent method for the electoral process in any country.

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