This Is What Happened When EVMs Were Used For The First Time In An Election In India

Most of us know Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) as a relatively new introduction to the electoral process in India. But the first time an EVM was used in an election in India was way back in 1982.

In a by-election in the No. 70 Paravur Assembly Constituency in Kerala where a total of six candidates were in the fray.

EVMs which were introduced on an experimental basis was made available only in 50 of the 84 polling booths.

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After the election Communist Party of India's (CPI) Sivan Pillai, who secured 30,450 votes was declared the winner. Out of the 30,450 votes secured by Pillai 19,182 votes were from the EVMs and 11,268 from paper ballots.

But the election result immediately ran into trouble after AC Jose of Congress who had come second with 30,327 votes against his name challenged the outcome.

Jose filed a petition in the court claiming the validity of the results and argued that the under the Representation of the People Act 1951 and the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, there was no provision for any other method of voting other than paper ballot.

A trial court, which first heard the petition upheld the validity of EVMs and held that Pillai was the winner. Jose however challenged the verdict in the Kerala High Court and subsequently in the Supreme Court. On 5 March, 1984 the SC held that by using EVMs the Election Commision had overstepped its mandate.

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¡°If we were to accept the contention of the respondents (Election Commission), it would convert the Commission into an absolute despot in the field of election¡­. If the Commission is armed with such unlimited and arbitrary powers¡­.bring about a constitutional crisis, setting at naught the integrity and independence of the electoral process, so important and indispensable to the democratic system¡± Justice Fazal Ali had noted.

The SC ruled in the favour of the petitioner and ordered a repoll in the 50 booths using paper ballots. The court had also noted that

In the election which followed, Jose defeated Pillia who was the winner in the first vote with a margin of around 2000 votes.

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Though it was a setback to the EC, the EVM experiment continued in following elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

The first time an entire state election was held on EVMs was in 1999 in Goa Assembly Elections.

Since then, EVMs were widely used in all elections that followed and in 2004, for the first time the Parliamentary Elections were held using EVMs.