CJI Sanjiv Khanna To Hear Plea On EVM Tampering In Haryana Assembly Elections In Jan 2025

The Supreme Court on Friday posted for hearing in January 2025 plea of former Haryana Cabinet Minister and five-time MLA Karan Singh Dalal seeking verification and checking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the recent Haryana Assembly Elections.

The petition filed by Dalal, alongwith Lakhan Kumar Singla (a candidate in the Haryana polls), came up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.

As senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission of India told the bench that a similar plea was filed before a bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and it was withdrawn, CJI Khanna ordered that the petition be listed for hearing before Justice Datta in the week commencing January 20, 2025.

Dalal has approached the apex court through advocate Aljo K Joseph seeking a policy for the verification of EVMs and compliance of an earlier judgement of the top court related to the issue.

Dalal and co-petitioner Lakhan Kumar Singla secured the second-highest votes in their respective constituencies and have sought a direction to the poll panel to implement a protocol for examining the original “burnt memory” or microcontroller of the four components of the EVM — the Control Unit, Ballot Unit, VVPAT and Symbol Loading Unit.

The BJP had returned to power the third time in a row by winning 48 out of 90 assembly seats in the Haryana assembly elections held recently.

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A bench comprising Justice Khanna and Justice Datta had delivered a judgement earlier in April rejecting the demand for bringing back the old paper ballots.