A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta passed the directions while dealing with an application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) questioning the 'mock polls' conducted by the EC to check the EVMs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission to desist from erasing or reloading data stored in electronic voting machines (EVMS) till further orders as it sought the poll panel’s response on pleas seeking verification of the burnt memory and symbol loading units in compliance of its judgment.

The apex court also asked the poll panel to file an affidavit explaining the procedure adopted by it within two weeks and posted the matter for further hearing to the first week of March.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta passed the directions while dealing with an application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) questioning the “mock polls” conducted by the EC to check the EVMs instead of complying with the apex court judgment on April 26 last year that said an engineer from the EVM manufacturing company should examine the machines.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing ADR, said the SOP on EVM verification was insufficient as per the court’s ruling.

“What we want is for someone to examine the software and hardware of the EVMs to see whether they contain any element of manipulation,” he said.

On Tuesday, the bench questioned the poll panel on the erasure and reloading of polling data.

The bench said the 2024 judgment did not mandate such actions but merely required verification of the EVMs by an engineer of the manufacturing company.

“What we intended was that, if after the polls somebody asks, the engineer should come and certify that, according to him, in their presence, there is no tampering in any of the burnt memory or microchips. That’s all. Why do you erase the data?” the CJI asked.