PTI
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy contended in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that Electronic Voting Machines were not tamper-free, and they needed rectification to ensure free and fair elections.
Appearing before a Bench headed by the acting Chief Justice, Madan B. Lokur, he said EVMs should not be used without paper receipts. The Election Commission’s claim that EVMs were tamper-proof was proved wrong, he said. The Commission’s refusal to entertain his request for the dual system forced him to approach the court. Dr. Swamy said EVMs were not unique instruments as claimed by the Commission since Bharat Electronics Limited and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited, which developed them, had withdrawn the application for patent before the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
The court posted the matter for April 14 as Dr. Swamy sought time to submit some more documents.
Janamejayan's Weblog 
‘EVMs illegally being used for a decade’
Sanjay Sharma, TNN, Feb 22, 2010, 03.44am IST
CHANDIGARH: The electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being used in violation of the Information Technology Act 2000, a research paper has revealed.
Author of the research paper, advocate Ajay Jagga, told The Times of India, on Sunday that as per IT Act, 2000, a verifiable audit trail has to be provided in case of any electronic record, which is now admissible as evidence as per Evidence Act but in case of electronic voting, the voter does not get any receipt with regard to his voting.
The research paper recently attracted the attention of experts when a conference on “EVMs: How trustworthy?” in Chennai passed a unanimous resolution on February 13 asking Jagga to approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) for bringing the electronic voting procedure in tune with IT Act, 2000.
Jagga said he would soon approach ECI seeking formation of legal committee to remove the illegality or will knock the doors of court.
The lawyer said, “Unless the voter gets a receipt like the one we get in ATM or after the use of debit or credit cards, all electronic transactions including a vote, are illegal.” What is the evidence that the vote cast has really been recorded and that it has been recorded in the manner the voter intended, he asked.
For the purpose and to protect the secrecy of ballot, all such receipts, after the voter has checked his transaction, should be put in a box which should remain with ECI to be produced as evidence in case of a dispute, he said. The government amended the relevant laws in 1989 to equate EVM with ballot and ballot box to facilitate transition from ballot paper to EVM but the IT Act 2000 created a new complication that has to be immediately resolved in the interest of fairness of things, Jagga pointed out.
The lawyer also proved that the machine can be tampered with which has been accepted by the government itself in its letter to withdraw patent applications filed by Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics Ltd, makers of the machine. The PSUs withdrew their patent applications on the ground that the machine may not be tamper-proof, he said, adding that America and Germany had to return to ballot paper after their machines were found wanting.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/EVMs-illegally-being-used-for-a-decade/articleshow/5601297.cms
Linked on USA Today 23 Feb. 2010 http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Places,+Geography/Countries/India/05zF4kBeFJ47y/1