The Delhi High Court turned down a plea on Wednesday asking the Election Commission of India to switch back to traditional ballot papers from Electronic Voting Machines, or EVMs, for elections. A bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela pointed out that the Supreme Court has already tackled this issue and shot down similar requests.
In a straightforward order, the bench said: “The writ petition challenging the use of EVMs in elections was dismissed by the Supreme Court. In view of that, we dismiss this writ petition.” The case was filed by Upendra Nath Dalai, who wanted the court to force the change due to concerns over EVM security.
Representing the central government, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma pushed back hard. He told the court that Dalai had faced criticism before for throwing around wild claims without proof. “Nobody can abuse the court process like this,” Sharma said. “The matter has already been settled by the Supreme Court.”
This isn’t the first time courts have weighed in on EVMs and elections in India. Back in November last year, the Supreme Court rejected a public interest litigation calling for a return to paper ballots, citing fears that EVMs could be manipulated. The top court had a sharp take: “When you lose, EVMs are tampered with; when you win, EVMs are fine.”
More recently, in April 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed a set of petitions demanding mandatory checks of EVM votes against Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, or VVPAT, slips. Justices warned that keep raising doubts about EVMs without solid evidence could backfire, breeding distrust in the system and scaring people away from voting.
Justice Dipankar Datta, in his ruling, questioned the motives behind one such petition from the Association for Democratic Reforms. He suggested their push to go back to paper ballots seemed aimed at undermining EVMs and stirring up unnecessary fears among voters. “I have serious doubts about the bona fides of the group,” Datta wrote, noting their past work on election reforms but calling this request hard to understand.
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