Information Commission did not respond to RTI after requesting clarification on EVM from Election Commission

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has expressed strong objection to the Election Commission not responding to an RTI petition. Under RTI, the Election Commission was asked to respond to the steps taken to represent the questions raised by eminent people on the reliability of EVMs and VVPAT machines during the elections.

CIC has demanded a written response from the Election Commission within 30 days, deeming this a flagrant breach of the law. In response to the Election Commission's Central Public Information Officer's unsatisfactory response, Chief Information Commissioner Hiralal Samaria chastised the officer and ordered that all officers who disregarded the directive, in this case, receive a copy of the CIC's decision and be required to provide point-by-point clarification within a month.

On May 2, 2022, a delegation headed by former IAS officer MG Devshyam sent a representation to the Election Commission, expressing concerns about the veracity of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), and vote counting.

Now he has asked through RTI what steps the Election Commission has taken regarding this representation. Devshyam had filed the RTI petition on November 22, 2022.