MUMBAI, April 17 -- A technical inspection of electronic voting machines (EVMs) used for polling in the Chandivali assembly constituency could not be completed following a dispute between senior Congress leader and former minister Naseem Khan and election officials. Khan alleged the Election Commission of India (ECI) is avoiding proper inspection of the EVMs, effectively defying Supreme Court orders in this regard. Khan had challenged the election results from Chandivali in the Bombay High Court. He lost the seat in a close contest against Shiv Sena MLA Dilip Lande in November 2024. In his petition, he also demanded a "diagnostic check" of the EVMs while referring to a Supreme Court (SC) order. The high court, in a February 12 order, allowed the inspection, signalling a rare, court-led inspection of poll equipment amid continuing concerns over transparency. The suburban district collectorate recently ordered the inspection of 20 EVMs on Thursday. It was carried out by Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), the Bengaluru-based EVM manufacturer, in the presence of Khan and his team, before the process was halted. "The officials were only demonstrating the physical connectivity between the Control Unit (CU), Ballot Unit (BU) and VVPAT machines, rather than carrying out a comprehensive audit as laid down by the apex court," Khan charged. "The election commission's SOP for EVM inspection contradict the Supreme Court's guidelines. A formal letter has been submitted to the ECI demanding adherence to the court's directives. If the demands are not met, we will approach the Supreme Court," he said. In his letter to the chief electoral officer, S Chockalingam, Khan referred to the SC verdict delivered on May 7, 2025, and underlined the following: "The engineer will issue certificate(s) that they are satisfied that the burnt memory/micro controller and the data program(s) loaded by them have not been tampered with and their integrity is maintained." The apex court order had also said, "It will be also open to the candidates to state that the data loaded on the Symbol Loading Units (SLU) may not be erased and retained for use in the mock poll." Khan claimed BEL's engineers were unwilling to present data from the SLU. "The SLU contains data on all candidates contesting the polls in a given constituency. This data would verify whether the candidates' names were present on polling day, thereby addressing concerns that only select candidates' data may have been loaded into the SLU to favour a particular individual," he argued. Refuting Khan's allegations, Chockalingam clarified Khan had selected the wrong option. "As per Supreme Court instructions, the election commission provides candidates two options: one is a diagnostic check and the other is a mock poll. He chose the diagnostic check, which involves connecting all units to verify their readiness for polling," he said....