Will Biometric Voting End the EVM Tampering Debate?

Every time election results are announced across India, a perennial debate surfaces when the losing political parties and their supporters raise a hue and cry over the credibility of the polls.

They frequently allege that the Election Commission of India colluded with the ruling governments to tamper the EVM machines by increasing the voting percentage in the last minute. However, the ECI strongly counters all the allegations and continues to deploy novel methods and techniques to make elections tamper-proof. 

Amid all this, a Public Interest Litigation filed in the Supreme Court has drawn the attention of everyone. Through this plea, Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay suggested for biometric verification systems at polling booths to prevent electoral malpractices such as impersonation and duplicate voting.

The petitioner has requested the Supreme Court to consider introduction of finger and iris-based biometric identification at polling stations to curb duplicate and fraudulent voting. 

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi weighed on the matter and immediately issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission of India, and several states, seeking their responses on the plea. The Court, however, made it clear that such a massive exercise cannot be implemented immediately but can be considered for the future polls. 

As every individual has unique biometrics, using them to verify the identity of voters and also introducing such a mechanism to rule out any chance of duplicate voting or impersonation will surely restore the faith in the process of election system in a large country like India. 

Moreover, it will also end to most extent the debate over chances for EVM tampering in closed doors as alleged by Opposition parties every now and then. So, how the ECI reacts on Supreme Court’s notices needs to be seen to ascertain the possibility and practicality of the vital recommendation.