EVM row: Election Commission to hold demo, exhibit short film

May 20, 2017

New Delhi, May 20: The Election Commission of India is today holding a press conference to announce the dates of its 'EVM Challenge' and to offer a live demonstration of its Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

The event will see the Election Commission exhibiting a four-minute short film on the features of its EVMs. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will deliver a statement, which will be followed by a round of questions and answers.

Today's live demo comes amid allegations raised by the Opposition that the EC's EVMs are vulnerable to hacking and tampering. The claims first emerged after the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party romping home with a huge win.

From Congress to the Aam Aadmi Party, several leaders from Opposition parties, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have raised concerns over the trustworthiness of the country's voting machines.

The Election Commission has maintained that its machines are tamperproof but amid rising controversy on the issue, agreed to let political parties and experts attempt to prove the allegations at an 'EVM Challenge'. Notably, the Commission has refused to use the term 'hackathon' to describe the challenge, contending that the word cannot be used since EVMs are not connected to the internet.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party held its own demonstration EVM hacking in the Delhi Assembly. Party MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj brought in a dummy EVM and proceeded to show how the machine could be purportedly hacked to get it to cast votes for only one party/candidate.

During a recent all-party meeting called on the EVM issue, the Election Commission had also said that all future elections in India will make use of VVPAT machines. VVPAT machines allow voters to verify for whom they have cast their ballots.

The machine prints out a paper slip that displays information about which party/candidate a vote was for. Voters can view the slip but cannot take it home - the paper printout is collected in a box attached to the VVPAT machines. At the all-party meet, the EC also said during elections, it would count a certain percentage VVPAT print outs to tally the votes cast.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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