Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal welcomed the Supreme Court’s April 26 order rejecting pleas for the replacement of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), saying that the judgment had “exposed” the desire of Opposition parties, including the Congress, to “defame” the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Supreme Court also rejected pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and said that “blindly distrusting” any aspect of the system can breed unwarranted scepticism. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered two concurring verdicts and dismissed all the pleas in the matter, including those seeking to go back to using ballot papers for voting.
“The Supreme Court in its decision said that the EVM system is all right, it’s credible and there cannot be any tampering with it. The Supreme Court has given a fabulous decision. We welcome this decision on behalf of the BJP,” Mr. Meghwal said, addressing a press conference at the BJP’s national headquarters in New Delhi.
