The petitioner told the court that even such leaders as Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had sought to know from the people if the EVMs were tampered with.

How do you get such brilliant ideas, the Supreme Court asked a petitioner Tuesday while dismissing his petition seeking to go back to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.

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On the day of the hearing, the petitioner KA Paul told the court that even Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy questioned EVM tampering when elections were held.

To this, the bench said what happens is, if you win the elections, EVMs or voting machines are not tampered.

"When Chandrababu Naidu or Mr Reddy lost, they say that EVMs are tampered and when they won, they don't say anything. How can we see this? We are dismissing this. This is not the place where you argue all of this," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and PB Varale.

Mr Paul had also solicited for a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum period of five years if caught guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.

"You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?" the top court asked the petitioner, who is the president of an organisation which has rescued more than three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.

"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench said.

Mr Paul argued that EVMs could be tampered with and suggested that India should follow the practices of countries like the United States which use paper ballots instead of EVMs.

EVMs pose a threat to democracy, said Mr Paul adding that even prominent figures like Elon Musk had voiced concerns over EVM tampering.

"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.

In October, while announcing the poll dates for Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar again made a light of the issue by pointing out that the EVMs are safe and robust, questioning if there is any example anywhere in the country where there is so much thrust on disclosure and participation.

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