Polity & Governance GS 2 In the news 3 times

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)

EVMs were introduced in Indian elections to eliminate booth capturing, ballot stuffing, and invalid votes that plagued the paper ballot era. They were first used on a trial basis in the 1982 Kerala Legislative Assembly election (Parur constituency) and were approved by a panel of experts in 1990 as both technically reliable and tamper-proof. EVMs were rolled out nationwide in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Each EVM system at a polling booth consists of three units: the Ballot Unit (where voters press buttons), the Control Unit (operated by the Presiding Officer, which stores votes), and the VVPAT (which generates a paper slip for the voter to verify their choice before it falls into a sealed compartment).

Key details

Manufacturers: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL, Bengaluru) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL, Hyderabad) — both Central Public Sector Undertakings
EVM lifespan: 15 years; one set can typically serve three election cycles
Components at each booth: 1 Ballot Unit + 1 Control Unit + 1 VVPAT
VVPAT introduced nationally in 2013; provides a verifiable paper trail
EVMs are standalone machines with no wireless connectivity or internet capability — by design, preventing remote tampering
The Supreme Court in PUCL v. Union of India (2013) upheld the constitutionality of EVMs and ordered the introduction of VVPATs for voter verifiability