EVMs row: PIL in SC seeks to quash Lok Sabha poll results

Alleging that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with, a senior Member of Parliament from Shiv Sena on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court for setting aside the just concluded 15th Lok Sabha elections.

Alleging that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with, a senior Member of Parliament from Shiv Sena on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court for setting aside the just concluded 15th Lok Sabha elections.

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In a PIL filed through counsel Nawal K Jha, the five-time Shiv Sena MP Mohan Rawle, who himself lost the polls to Congress candidate Milind Deora from Mumbai south, claimed that the election process in the entire country was vitiated and pleaded that the ballot box system be restored.

"It is also prayed that the 15th General Elections of Lok Sabha, specifically the election of south Mumbai Parliamentary constituency, may be set aside as the same have been held through defective, incredible, untrustworthy and unreliable electronic voting machines," the petition stated.

In support of his plea, Rawle cited statements from various political parties like BJP, CPM, TDP, Samajwadi Party, RJD and LJP who expressed their view for reviving the ballot box systems as the EVMs were vulnerable to "tampering."

Quoting extensively various research papers and media reports from across the world, the former MP submitted that even in advanced countries like the US, authorites there have discarded EVMs as they were vulnerable for tampering and reverted to the traditional ballot box system.