A Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a plea which had contended that the SOP framed by the poll body was not in tune with the April 2024 judgment of the apex court in the EVM-VVPAT case

The Election Commission informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 7, 2025) that it will not erase data in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that candidates want verified.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, which contended that the Standard Operating Procedure framed by the poll body was not in tune with the April 2024 judgment of the apex court in the EVM-VVPAT case.

The court, however, said the verification of the units must be done by the engineers of the Bharatiya Electrical Limited (BEL) and Electronic Corporation of India Limited.

“The engineers will also issue a certificate that they are satisfied that the burnt memory/microcontrollers and software have not been tampered with and their integrity is maintained,” the court recorded.

The court, in its order, said if a candidate wanted a mock poll, the EC could do it.

In its judgment pronounced on April 26 last year, the Bench had upheld the EVM system of polling while refusing a plea to revive paper ballots.

In a separate direction, the top court had directed that the burnt memory of microcontrollers of 5% of EVMs, which includes that of control units, ballot units, VVPATs, in every Assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency can be checked and verified by a team of engineers of the EVM manufacturers in case of any suspicion of tampering.

The exercise would be initiated on a written request from candidates who come second or third in the victor’s tally, the judgment had said.