In its April 26, 2024 order, the top court gave second and third-placed candidates the option to get the burnt memory/microcontroller of 5% of EVMs per Assembly segment “checked and verified by a team of engineers from EVM manufacturers post the announcement of results” on a written request for a cost to be notified by the EC.

The ADR plea said the EC was only conducting mock polls for verification of the EVMs, but what was needed was the examination of its software and hardware of EVM to find out whether they had been manipulated.

Hearing the ADR plea on February 11, the SC, while seeking an ECI response to the plea, asked it to ensure that polling data is not deleted from the EVMs while they are being verified.

Hearing it again Wednesday, the bench recorded that, pursuant to the February 11 order, EC had filed an affidavit stating that it will no longer erase the data on the EVM units whose verification is sought by the candidates in terms of the April 26 judgment.

Accepting this, the court also said engineers from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) should do the verification and issue clearance certificates.

“We accept the said technical proposal. However, the said verification be done by the engineers of BEL and ECIL. The said 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 ordered.

On mock polls, the SC said that any candidate who wants to conduct a mock poll on the EVM may place a request in writing.