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Supreme Court dismisses plea for cross-verification of all EVM votes with VVPAT slips

The judgement:

  • The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions seeking verification of all the votes cast on EVMs with VVPAT slips.
  • The apex court also rejected a plea to return to paper ballots.
  • The voter will not be allowed to take the VVPAT slip himself physically and drop into the ballot compartment, which is currently being dropped there automatically after the voter checks it through a screen.
  • The court said the ECI may explore the possibility of using an electronic machine to count VVPAT slips.
  • The sealed containers containing the SLUs shall be kept in storerooms, with the EVMs, (for) at least for 45 days post declaration of results, the court said.
  • The burnt memory in the EVM microcontroller must be checked by a team of engineers after results are declared if a candidate makes such a request, the verdict stated.

"Blindly distrusting a system can lead to unwarranted suspicions," Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna remarked.

OPINION: It is important that the random selection of the booths is done after the EVM counting. It would also help to clear any lingering doubts if the number of random booths is increased. The rest could be left to Lady Luck!

NEW DELHI, Apr 26: The Supreme Court dismissed a batch of petitions on Friday seeking cross-verification of all the votes cast through the EVMs (electronic voting machines) with the VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) paper slips during counting. It also rejected a plea to return to the old paper ballot system of voting.

The court also refused to allow the voters to put the VVPAT paper slips themselves into the ballot compartment instead of them being dropped into it automatically as is being done now.

The VVPAT slips are currently used to verify votes cast through the EVM only in five randomly selected polling booths per constituency. The petition was demanding to match up all the votes cast on EVM with the slips (100% verification).

The ECI argued that it matched EVM votes with more than 4 crore VVPAT slips and so far there were no discrepancies found. The commission explained how it is impossible to tamper with the EVMs and that the programme itself is copyrighted.

The VVPAT machine attached to the EVM prints out a slip of paper showing the vote cast by a voter and drops it into a compartment below. The slip is visible for seven seconds for the voter to check if the vote he cast has gone to the candidate of his choice. These slips can be used and counted like ballot papers and tallied with the candidate-wise total votes polled as shown by the EVM. But at present this counter-verification is done only for five randomly selected polling booths per constituency. This sampling is supposed to test the integrity of system of machine voting.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and other petitioners alleged that the EVM can be tampered with or even be pre-programmed to save majority votes in favour of a particular candidate/party/symbol.

Advantages of EVM

There are quite a few advantages of using the EVM voting machine, especially if transparency can be brought about. First, saving the paper. But even for paper ballot there used to be complaints long ago that a Russian magic ink was being used that does the trick of changing the mark in favour of the intended candidate. There have been serious charges against the pro-active spymaster of the universe for over a period of about three-fourths of a century. It is now in public domain that they, using their latest home-grown technology, helped Trump in winning the 2016 US presidential election but was preempted next time as the Democrats smelt a rat and succeeded in changing the voting pattern heavily in favour of postal ballot and early voting. A shocked Trump went violent and still remains unstable.

Secondly, and this one is quite good, that there is no chance of the most common dispute about the validity of a marking on a paper ballot by the voter in the old system, holding up counting! There can never be an error when the candidate's option is printed by a machine. Counting can be made easy.

Thirdly, saving the time. Results can be announced instantly. However, the argument that election in India is the largest democratic exercise in the world and we can no longer continue with the physical counting as in small countries like France and Switzerlad, is fallacious. It was the most stupid thing for the ECI to submit in the court that counting 100% VVPAT slips would pose a “great difficulty” as it would take an hour to count the slips from one VVPAT alone. Who are they kidding, the court?

TAILPIECE: It is true to say, if you know advanced computer programming, that anything is possible through computing technology in the universe today except for moving the mountains. And for that we don't need to wait for Quantum to come. Even without programming knowledge, a teacher from her home computer can correct her pupil's answers on his computer at his house. That is as simple as that! As for the EVM, a simple mobile can be used from outside the booth to rewrite the list/file the EVM is storing if you are familiar with the inside of the machine. It is questionable whether a jurist who is defined as an expert in the common laws formulated by the politicians, and the legal practices, by virtue of just being that jurist is competent to express opinions on these technological issues.

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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.

The irony lies in her illustration of her experiences in the country she has been living in for the last four years. What it really is!

ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!

The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.

Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.

  • The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
  • The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
  • The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)

A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924) (Today's headlines )

Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”

Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.

PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.

Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people. (Today's headlines )

"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...

Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.

Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.

As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.

The committee headed by justice Kurian Joseph will study Centre-State relations and make proposals to ensure foolproof separation of powers.

"It's a big victory not just for Tamil Nadu but for all Indian States. DMK will continue to struggle for and win State autonomy and Federal polity," Chief Minister MK Stalin said.

Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.

ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!

What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America! (Today's headlines )

PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).

In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.

THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.

The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.

Suddenly these colonial clerks feel this effortless, little rule will tremendously enhance security and convenience for the railway passengers manifold. More stations will be covered in the next 77 years! (Also See: New Delhi station stampede... What went wrong?)

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