EVM info can't be revealed under RTI Act

By : Jithendra.H.J on 07 November 2009



The Delhi High Court has held that information stored in
Electronic Voting Machine(EVM) cannot be made public
under the RTI Act. Justice Sanjiv Khanna set aside the
order of the Central Information Commission which had
asked the Election Commission to reveal information in
EVM to an information seeker under the transparency law.
"Right to information is an important right.

At the same time, maintaining secrecy and
confidentiality of the ballot papers is also an
equally valuable right," the court said.

The Court passed the order on a petition
filed by the Election Commission challenging
the CIC's order which had directed it to provide
information pertaining to which were noted down
from electronic voting machines. It had pleaded
that confidentiality of voters have to be protected
at any cost and it would be very easy to find out
voting pattern if such information are revealed.
"We are under law precluded from having access
to the information. We have custody of the machines
but we don't have custody of the information containing
in the machine," the Commission had said while expressing
its inability to disclose such information.

"Once EVMs are sealed, it is no longer open
to the Election Commission to de-seal them and
re-examine the data stored in the control unit except
under pre-conditions," the court said adding it could be
desealed only after an order of a competent court.