Read Time: 04 minutes

The Delhi High Court today dismissed with a cost of Rs 10,000 plea by Advocate CR Jayasukin seeking directions to the Election Commission to stop the use of EVMs and instead use ballot papers in the forthcoming elections.

The order was passed by the division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh after the matter was heard extensively by the bench.

The bench not satisfied with the averments made in the plea which were mainly based on news item said:

“Having heard the parties we are of the view that this is not a public interest litigation but a “Publicity Interest Litigation”. It appears from the arguments that the petitioner has no knowledge of EVM machines at all. The petitioner has filed the petition by relying on newspapers. The entire petition is based on 4 annexures where annexure P1 is only a news item.

The petitioner has no knowledge of the EVM machine and the style of working of machine which has been approved by ECI as well as the parliament u/s 61A of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951The entire petition is based on hearsay and without any research by the petitioner. The petitioner has submitted that neither in UK, France, England or Germany EVMs are used. This is based only a news item read by the petitioner. Hence we see no reason to entertain this writ petition.”

The Court however granted liberty to the petitioner to file fresh petition with proper research.

Earlier the Supreme Court bench led by the then Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian on January 6, 2020 had dismissed Sukin’s plea with the liberty to approach the High Court.

Case Title: CR Jayasukin vs Election Commission of India