Delhi High Court directs DU to secure EVMs used in DUSU election

The Delhi High Court today directed Delhi University (DU)’s Chief Electoral Officer to secure the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) election..“In the meantime, the Chief Electoral Officer…to ensure that the EVMs utilized for poll and all the paper trail/documents be kept in a secure place under his lock and key, till the next date of hearing”, the Court said..Justice Siddharth Mridul was hearing a petition by three National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) candidates, namely Sunny Chhillar, Leena, and Saurabh Yadav, challenging the DUSU election results..While issuing notice to the Central government, Delhi University, as well the three winning candidates belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Justice Mridul asked them to file their replies to the petition within three weeks..The petition filed through Advocates V Elanchezhiyan, Jawed Hussain Khan, and Rashid N Azam seeks a direction to set aside the elections and declare the result “as unconstitutional, arbitrary, illegal, void ab-initio and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution”..The petitioners contend that the EVMs used for the poll were faulty and had malfunctioned during the process. Thus, a direction to re-conduct the polls using ballot paper systems was sought for..The uproar over faulty EVMs surfaced at the time of counting for the DUSU poll. Congress-backed NSUI bagged one out of four seats, while the BJP-backed ABVP won the remaining seats..The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Anup George Choudhary. The Central government was represented by Advocate Anil Soni. Delhi University was represented by Advocates Mohinder J Rupal and Prang Newmai..The matter will next be heard on October 29..Image taken from here.