The
Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking
complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with Voter Verifiable
Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) after taking note of answers to queries it had raised
before the Election Commission.
A
bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought answers from an
official of the poll panel to five questions related to the the functioning of
the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), including whether the microcontrollers
fitted in them are reprogrammable.
Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar
Vyas, who had earlier made a presentation to the court on the functioning of
EVMs, was summoned by the bench at 2 PM to answer the queries.
The
bench had said it needs clarification on certain aspects as there was some
confusion over the answers given by the EC to 'frequently asked questions'
(FAQs) about EVMs.
"We
have some doubts and need clarification and that's why we have listed the
matter for directions," the bench said, adding "we don't want to be
factually wrong but doubly sure in our findings".