The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that requisite electronic voting machines (EVMs) for May 26 municipal elections in Punjab have been dispatched from Rajasthan and could reach Chandigarh/Mohali by Thursday night.
The Punjab state election commission (SEC), on its part, informed the court that printing of ballot papers has started and it has already spent ₹50 lakh. Due to the short window, EVMs can’t be used for polls as it would require training of those put on poll duty, the SEC counsel told the court.
These submissions have been made during resumed hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ruchita Garg, an advocate and Mohali resident, challenging the SEC decision to hold the elections by ballot paper instead of EVMs for municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab.
Initially, the SEC had blamed the ECI for choosing ballots over EVMs, an argument strongly controverted by the latter.
The ECI told the court that the requisition for EVMs has to be made six months prior to the election as per the general guidelines issued by the ECI to all the states. However, in this case, demand came in January. In view of the extraordinary circumstances, the ECI can provide the requisite number of EVMs from the neighbouring Rajasthan, which would reach within 2-3 days, provided the SEC provides the requisite officers, the court was told, adding that the EVMs have been dispatched from Jaipur and are en route to be handed over to the Punjab SEC at Mohali or at Chandigarh tonight.
{{/usCountry}}The ECI told the court that the requisition for EVMs has to be made six months prior to the election as per the general guidelines issued by the ECI to all the states. However, in this case, demand came in January. In view of the extraordinary circumstances, the ECI can provide the requisite number of EVMs from the neighbouring Rajasthan, which would reach within 2-3 days, provided the SEC provides the requisite officers, the court was told, adding that the EVMs have been dispatched from Jaipur and are en route to be handed over to the Punjab SEC at Mohali or at Chandigarh tonight.
{{/usCountry}}The ECI also countered the apprehension of the SEC that the eleventh hour commissioning is not possible. “The ECI officials will facilitate the process of commissioning of the EVMs in order to have the elections conducted on time and as per schedule,” the ECI counsel said, adding since the poll panel deputes state employees in all the elections, they would require a training of 15 minutes only. Hence, EVMs can be used for the May 26 polls.
The SEC counsel, on the other hand, submitted that all preparations have been done for the May 26 polls and EVMs can’t be used at this stage without any proper training and associating political parties with the process. “What if there is some controversy tomorrow. Some malfunction. We are seeing so many controversies around EVMs,” the SEC counsel said, adding that barely five months back, the SEC had conducted the zila parishad polls through ballot papers and no serious problem was reported.
The court was further informed that as soon as the nomination period ended, the printing of ballot papers had started. Infact, ₹50 lakh has been spent on the exercise, he further submitted.
Petitioner’s counsel Chetan Mittal argued that EVMs should be preferred, pointing out that in the December 2025 zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections conducted using ballot papers, repolling had to be ordered in 16 booths out of 19,210. He contended that resistance to EVMs was unjustified.
The bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry has reserved the order for final judgment.