Supreme Court Rejects Review Plea on Voter Secrecy in Electoral System

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea filed by Agnostos Theos seeking a review of its order that dismissed allegations of voter secrecy violations in the current electoral system. The review petition argued that the VVPAT slips and data in EVMs compromise voter confidentiality. The court found no basis for a review and upheld its earlier decision.

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking review of its order which turned down a PIL alleging violation of voter secrecy in the existing electoral system. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said no case for review of the order is made out.

It also rejected a request for open court hearing of the review petition.

''We have carefully perused the review petition, as also the grounds in support thereof. In our opinion, no case for review of the order dated May 17, 2024, is made out. The review petition is, accordingly, dismissed,'' the bench said. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Agnostos Theos, the Managing Director of the Sikh Chamber of Commerce, seeking review of the May 17 order.

Theos had asserted in his PIL that a polling officer can see the VVPAT slips and the data stored in the polling device, thereby violating voter secrecy. ''From the VVPAT slips and data in EVMs, the (presiding) officer can identify which voter cast his vote for which party,'' he had claimed.

On April 26, terming the suspicion over manipulation of the EVMs as ''unfounded'', the top court had rejected the demand for reverting to the old paper ballot system. It had held that the polling devices were ''secure'' and eliminate booth capturing and bogus voting.