The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved judgment on pleas seeking a 100 per cent VVPAT tally with votes cast on an Electronic Voter Machine (EVM). Minutes later, petitioner Arun Kumar Agrawal expressed his disappointment with the hearing. He confessed there was little hope of getting relief.
“I followed the court proceedings enough to know that it is not going to go my way,” he said over a cup of coffee at the Supreme Court canteen.
The Supreme Court’s hearing on pleas for a complete VVPAT tally with EVMs was crucial with the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections kicking off today. Currently, VVPAT verification is done at five random polling stations in each constituency selected by a Returning Officer by drawing lots. If there is any dispute, the vote recorded on VVPAT slip takes precedence.
On the first day of the hearing, the Supreme Court on April 16 said stricter penalties were required to curb manipulation of the elections and misconduct by poll officials. On April 18, day 2 of the hearing, the top court said this is an election process and there must be sanctity to it. “Let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done,” Justice Dipankar Datta had said before the bench—also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna—directly interacted with an Election Commission official.
The top court expressed confidence in the EVMs after the poll panel said its system was fool-proof and an EC official explained how the EVMs worked. The top court said, “Everything can't be suspected. You can't be critical of everything...please also appreciate if they [EC] have done something good. We heard you because we are also concerned,” Justice Khanna, he is slated to take over as the Chief Justice of India later this year in November, told Prashant Bhushan when the advocate pointed out flaws in the machine.
However, Agrawal counters that the whole country is agitated with at least 25 per cent feeling the elections have been “stolen”.
In his plea, Agrawal contends that various experts have raised concern and created a sense of doubt among the general public about whether there is a mismatch between the votes cast and recorded. “It is not important whether the apprehensions on election rigging are correct or not, but the possibility of rigging is widely believed by the lay public as well as the knowledgeable,” it read.
“Isn’t that a cause for concern?” Agrawal told BOOM.
I concede defeat: Petitioner after Supreme Court hearing
Agrawal, with a medical science, banking, and law background, is a numbers guy. He let his math do all the talking. Almost a billion voters will exercise their adult franchise in seven phases till June 1 and votes will be counted on June 4.
“Right now, only 2 per cent of VVPAT paper votes are counted. If there is a manipulation of 5 per cent votes, the chances of getting caught is a mere 0.01 per cent. Even if you get caught it can be attributed to human error. So the checks and balances are not sufficient,” he said.
Coincidentally, on Thursday, the Supreme Court was presented with a news report of how four EVMs on April 17 erroneously registered votes for BJP during a mock drill in Kasaragod, Kerala. The SC asked the poll panel to verify the claims, following which an EC official dismissed the allegations calling them “false”.
EC’s clarification to the court came despite the Returning Officer's communication to Kerala’s Chief Electoral Officer stating the discrepancy of an extra with the message ‘not to be counted’ and ‘standardisation done, VVPAT serial no’ printed on it. BM Jamal, Chief Election Agent of Congress candidate Rajmohan Unnithan, was one of the 25 people in the strong room when the mock drill took place. Jamal confirmed the incident with BOOM as well.
“That’s why, in such a scenario, you [EC] lose nothing if you go the extra mile,” he added.
The election commission said it takes one hour and a team of three persons to tally VVPATs with votes cast on one EVM. And this is done serially, Agrawal explained. “Just scale this now to constitute teams of three persons each to tally all VVPATs with EVMs. 50 teams of three people each can easily do the job in five hours,” he said.
“Usually, I can ably argue my cases. I have done so as a petitioner-in-person before the Karnataka High Court, and won those cases as well. But I was not confident enough to argue before the Supreme Court,” Agrawal said.
The ex-banker, who now spends all this time following his three passions – stocks, litigation, and football, is disappointed at the state of affairs. We are in a state worse than the Congress-imposed Emergency in 1975, the 70-year-old said. Then, at least there was an acknowledgement that the Emergency was a mistake. The Congress even apologized and made course corrections. And more importantly, the nation forgave Indira Gandhi,” Agrawal said.
Today, the media and the judiciary – two important pillars have buckled. The checks and balances are gone, Agrawal told BOOM.
At the end of the two-day hearing, Agrawal said he conceded defeat. “I have already lost the battle,” he said.
So, does he regret fighting losing battles?
No, Agrawal said, adding “Some battles are worth fighting for, even if you lose”.
“This is true patriotism, where we care for the nation,” he added.