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The Supreme Court heard a case that sought a direction to the authorities to make sure that physical access to the electronic voting machines is restricted only to engineers of the Electronics Corporation of India Limited and Bharat Elections Limited. While the latter manufactures the machines the former upkeeps them. The bench comprising Justice Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan directed the petitioner , a journalist based in Uttarakhand Ashish Goyal to serve a copy on the Election Commission of India. The matter will be heard after two weeks.
The petition relies on a manual released in January 2017 which provides that first level checking of EVM must be carried out by ECIl and BEL. The petition also referred to the general assembly elections in Uttarkhand when after the voting was over the machines were moved to a different store for counting without intimating the political parties. This was in violation of the protocol that EVM are to be untouched for 45 days. The petition further asserts that free and fair elections are a bedrock to democracy. If such does not happen it violates articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The petition also claims the confusion relating to the number of operating EVM across the country. It finally seeks relief on ------
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