Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court opened hearings on September 18 regarding a PIL targeting the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines used in the 2026 Assam Assembly election. Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar leads the bench. They pushed the next session on the petition's admissibility to November 4.
Assam Jatiya Parishad leader Ziaur Rahman teamed up with Congress figures Guptamani Sharma and Ripun Bora to file the challenge. The group claims the machines lack necessary transparency. They want details on the source code and the specific semiconductor microchips inside the units. Rahman noted, "The court had indicated that the matter was serious and sensitive and involved issues connected with EVM-related cases pending before or already decided by the Supreme Court and other high courts."
The petitioners pointed to a potential conflict involving a Japanese semiconductor firm. They allege company officials met Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during a January 2025 Japan visit. This supposedly links to Assam's own semiconductor investment plans. The petitioners argue the Election Commission of India hides essential programming data from the public eye. They also flagged odd polling patterns observed across multiple constituencies on election day.
Lawyers for the petitioners and the Election Commission presented initial arguments on Friday. The Assam government and the Japanese company remain parties to the case. The court has not verified these claims yet. It is purely testing if the petition holds legal water.
Updated at 19th September 2026 at 9:47am
The petitioners claim the BJP victory in 2026 hinged on EVM irregularities, though the filing does not currently seek to overturn the election results. Rahman specifically named Renesas Electronics as the Japanese company linked to the Chief Minister, noting that Sarma met with their representatives in Tokyo on January 22, 2025, during the window between polling day and the count.
Rahman pointed to odd polling data, claiming an analysis of the April 4 figures shows 35 constituencies reported exactly 17 percent turnout between 1 pm and 3 pm, with another 37 constituencies hitting that same identical mark. He also claimed that an RTI request regarding the machine source code was rejected by officials who cited national security concerns.
Updated at 19th September 2026 at 1:49pm
Senior advocate Kamal Nayan Choudhury represented the petitioners during the session. While the current filing raises questions about whether irregularities influenced the BJP victory, the legal team confirmed they are not seeking to nullify the election results at this stage.
Rahman pointed to international precedents, noting that other nations provide greater transparency regarding programming details and source code before their elections. The petitioners acknowledged that previous legal challenges across the country failed to prove the machines were inherently unreliable, but they argue this case holds weight because it targets the specific microchip technology and internal programming of the current units.
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