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Court issues notices to Centre, Gill

The Delhi high court today issued show cause notices to the central government and Chief Election Commissioner Dr Manohar Singh Gill on a public interest petition seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the bulk purchase and non-utilisation of electronic voting machines worth Rs 735 million.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice Mukul Mudgal directed the respondents to reply to the petition within two weeks and fixed October 7 as the next date of hearing.

Central government counsel Rakesh Tikku accepted notices on behalf of the respondents.

The PIL, filed by advocate B L Wadehra, alleged that the government had wasted an additional Rs 150 million in maintaining the 150,000 battery-operated machines, bought in March 1990.

However, in the past eight years, not a single machine had been put to use during the elections and the batteries purchased along with the machines have outlived their life of three years and their replacement at 1989 rates would cost Rs 9.75 million, Wadehra submitted.

Asked about the reason for the bulk purchase and the non-utilisation, Tikku submitted that the Election Commission was contemplating using 3,500 of such machines during the assembly election in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.

The bench asked why the machines were not utilised in the past when the method of operation was very simple.

Wadehra contended that the only reason for the non-utilisation of the machines was that the possibility of rigging would be negated in the process, which was not suited to various political parties.

He submitted that the decision to purchase the said machines at such a heavy expense was hasty, ill-considered and against public interest.

Hence the matter should be inquired by an independent agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation to identify those responsible for the purchase of the machines and squandering of public funds, the advocate urged.

The EC had told the Comptroller and Auditor General that reasons for its failure to use the machines include:

-- doubts and objections raised by political parties about the credibility of the machines and their fool-proof working.

-- problems associated with training of polling personnel, voters, contesting candidates and representatives of political parties in the use of the machines.

-- large number of candidates filing nominations in many constituencies and the final list of candidates not being known until the last date of withdrawal by the candidates.

-- it did not want to thrust the electronic voting machines unless and until there was a consensus among the political parties in the matter.

UNI

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