Supreme Court Rejects PIL Seeking Independent Audit Of Source Code Of EVMs

"If I start putting out what is source code in public, you know, who will be able to hack that," Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking an independent audit of source code of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used by the Election Commission, saying no "actionable material" was placed to indicate that the poll panel was in breach of its "constitutional mandate". Observing that it will not venture into the "policy issue", the Supreme Court dismissed the PIL which had also sought a direction to the poll panel to put in the public domain the audit report, if any, of EVM's source code.

"The Election Commission of India (ECI) is entrusted constitutionally with superintendence and control over the conduct of elections. Presently, the petitioner has placed no actionable material on the record in this court to indicate that the ECI is actually in breach of its constitutional mandate," a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said in its order.

The bench said the manner in which the source code should be audited and whether the audit report should be placed in public domain falls within the domain of the poll panel.