Bombay HC orders forensic examination of EVM
What's the story
The Bombay High Court has ordered the forensic examination of an electronic voter machine that was used in 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections. Congress candidate Abhay Chhajed, who lost to a BJP legislator from Pune's Parvati constituency filed an election petition challenging the result, alleging that the machine was tampered with. Chhajed moved the HC seeking examination of the EVM in one of the booths.
EVM trouble?
EVM tampering- 16 parties write to EC seeking paper ballots
In the aftermath of the various state elections that recently concluded, several political parties alleged that the EVMs had been tampered with. Mayawati and Arvind Kejriwal were leading the charge. 16 political parties have since approached the Election Commission and demanded that all future elections be held by paper ballot.
Details
Some details of the case
The EVM from booth number 185 from the Parvati constituency will be sent for forensic examination for alleged tampering. The court posed 9 questions for the forensic laboratory to answer. These include remote access to the EVM, authenticity of machine codes, and checking access logs of the machine. Chhajed alleged that the machine had registered fewer votes for him than anticipated.
Quote
Some questions posed by the HC
The HC also asked the forensic laboratory "Whether the hash values and metadata of the OTP codes are same or different? Whether the enclosed program counter data in the control unit give the same result as declared by the Returning Officer of the Election Commission?"