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Delhi HC dismisses plea to replace EVMs with ballot, ₹10k penalty imposed
A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh said the petition by lawyer CR Jaya Sukin was a “publicity interest litigation” based on hearsay and “baseless allegations and averments”. It sought to know what research the petitioner had conducted to show that EVMs were faulty.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed, with a cost of ₹10,000, a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to stop the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) in all forthcoming elections, and to use ballot papers instead.
A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh said the petition by lawyer CR Jaya Sukin was a “publicity interest litigation” based on hearsay and “baseless allegations and averments”. It sought to know what research the petitioner had conducted to show that EVMs were faulty.
“Petitioner has read these news items and filed a petition without looking at the EVM machine and style of working of EVM machine which is approved by ECI as well as by Parliament under Section 61A of Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. It is also submitted by party in person that petitioner has done research that neither in UK, France and other countries, EVMs are not used. This is not research by the petitioner but only a reading of news items by him,” the court said.
The bench noted that the petition was based on four documents, out of which one was a news item and others pertained to his representation and plea before the Supreme Court, and added that Sukin had no direct knowledge about EVMs at all.
“Nothing is argued by the petitioner (Sukin) concretely on the working of the EVM. We see no reason to entertain the writ petition... The writ petition is dismissed with costs of ₹10,000 to be deposited in four weeks towards Delhi State Legal Services Authority,” the court said.
The court said that Sukin can file a fresh petition on the issue after conducting research and making proper averments.
