A petition filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday said there was a long gap between the polling and counting dates of the 17th Lok Sabha election, making the EVMs susceptible to tampering during post-poll seclusion.
The petition based its apprehensions about the safety of EVMs during post-polling days on the April 14 press conference of Opposition parties and media reports questioning the ‘ground reality’ about the impartiality of the Election Commission.
It drew the court’s attention to a letter written by 66 former bureaucrats and Ambassadors addressed to the President, questioning the impartial functioning of the EC.
The former diplomats, the petition said, had “expressed their deepest anguish” on the poll panel’s conduct.
The petition, filed by M. Srinivasan, president of the Tamil Nadu Ambedkar Law Association, said it was “necessary to give directions to the Chief Election Commissioner to ensure the safety and security of the electronic voting machines.”
