The Supreme Court denied a petition on Tuesday that sought to bring back ballot papers instead of using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The court noted that EVMs are often criticised only when someone loses an election. 

“What happens is, if you win the elections, EVMs are not tampered (with). When you lose elections, EVMs are tampered (with). When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered (with). Now, this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered (with),” stated Justice Vikram Nath, charing the two-judge bench while rejecting the PIL by evangelist K A Paul.

Paul, during an in-person argument, referred to tweets from Naidu in 2018 and recent posts by Reddy on X, where Reddy suggested the possibility of EVM tampering after their election loss. In his introduction to the bench, which also included Justice P B Varale, Paul stated that he was the president of the US-based NGO Global Peace Initiative and that he had "rescued 3,10,000 orphans and 40 lakh widows." He claimed to have just returned from the Global Peace Summit in Los Angeles and that 180 retired judges and IAS or IPS officers supported his PIL.

Paul said that his appeal was not political but rather to defend democracy when Justice Nath asked him why he wanted to enter politics. He went on to say that he has visited 155 nations, all of which used the ballot paper system. "Every democracy in the world...has physical ballot paper," he argued, adding that only dictatorships lack it. “I have been to Russia with Putin, Syria with Assad and Liberia with Charles Taylor-got him out of prison. He is in prison now. His wife also attended the summit on Saturday. So, we are protecting democracy,” Paul submitted.

Paul stated that he had advised world presidents and prime ministers for 43 years in the humanitarian sector. He added that 18 major parties have backed his call for paper ballots, saying, "Even the last six chief ministers and prime ministers here, including the present Prime Minister, have attended my summit." Justice Nath asked why the petitioner didn't want India to follow a different approach from the rest of the world. The petitioner replied that it was because of corruption in elections. He supported his argument by mentioning that the Election Commission had recently revealed it had seized Rs 9,000 crore. The petitioner also referred to Elon Musk’s comments about the possibility of tampering with EVMs.