UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 116 of 150

Correct — D, 2, 1, 4, 3 — the electronic voting machine first, then the voter's photo identity card, then NOTA, then the voter verifiable paper audit trail. The electronic voting machine is the oldest of the four by more than a decade. It was first tried in May 1982, in the by-election to the Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala, in a limited number of polling stations. The Supreme Court then held that the law as it stood did not permit voting by machine, so Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to authorise it — the amendment was passed in December 1988 and came into force in March 1989. EVMs were used in all 543 parliamentary constituencies for the first time in the 2004 general election. The elector's photo identity card, the EPIC, came next: it was introduced in 1993, during T. N. Seshan's tenure as Chief Election Commissioner, as the Commission's answer to impersonation and bogus voting. That fixes the first half of the sequence as 2 then 1, and rules out both options that begin with the identity card. NOTA and the VVPAT both belong to 2013, and that is where the question is really decided. The Supreme Court held on 27 September 2013 that a voter's right to register a 'none of the above' vote must be given effect, and NOTA appeared on ballots nationwide from the very next round of polls — the assembly elections of November-December 2013 — drawing about 1.1 per cent of the vote, over six million votes, in the 2014 general election; the distinct NOTA symbol followed on 18 September 2015. The paper audit trail took far longer to become a fact of Indian voting. It was first used in September 2013 in the Noksen assembly by-election in Nagaland, ran as a pilot in only 8 of 543 constituencies in the 2014 general election, and reached all 543 constituencies only in the 2019 general election. Measured by when each became a general feature of Indian elections, NOTA precedes the VVPAT — which is the order the commission's key marks. One honest caveat a careful student should know: that single Noksen pilot in early September 2013 does technically predate the 27 September NOTA judgment by a few weeks, so the two 2013 reforms are close enough that the tie-break depends on whether you date a reform from its first pilot or from its general adoption. UPPSC's key uses general adoption, and on that reading option (d) is the answer.

• (a)2, 1, 3, 4 — Gets the opening pair right — the machine of 1982 before the identity card of 1993 — and then reverses the tail, putting the paper audit trail before NOTA. On the reading the commission's key uses, that is backwards: NOTA was available in every constituency from the assembly elections of November-December 2013 onwards, whereas the VVPAT was still a pilot in 8 of 543 seats in 2014 and only covered the whole country in 2019. This is the most attractive of the wrong options, because a candidate who knows the first half cold may not have thought about how to separate two reforms that share a year.
• (b)1, 2, 3, 4 — This is the 'answer in the order the items are printed' option, and it is wrong at both ends. It puts the voter's photo identity card of 1993 ahead of the electronic voting machine, which was already being tried in Kerala in May 1982 and had statutory backing from March 1989 — an eleven-year error. It then repeats the mistake of option (a) by placing the paper audit trail ahead of NOTA.
• (c)1, 2, 4, 3 — Gets the tail exactly right — NOTA and then the paper audit trail — but opens with the identity card before the voting machine. The EPIC belongs to 1993 and Seshan's tenure as Chief Election Commissioner; the EVM was tried a full decade earlier, in the Paravur by-election of May 1982. Because the question is decided by two independent pairings, getting one pair right is not enough.

Four separate reforms have reshaped how an Indian vote is cast and counted, and each entered the system at a different moment. The electronic voting machine replaced the paper ballot: tried in Kerala in May 1982, given statutory authority by an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that came into force in March 1989, and extended to every parliamentary constituency in 2004. The elector's photo identity card (EPIC), introduced in 1993 under Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan, attacks a different problem — impersonation at the polling booth. NOTA, created by a Supreme Court judgment of 27 September 2013, gives the voter a way to reject every candidate on the ballot while still recording a vote. The voter verifiable paper audit trail, first used in a Nagaland by-poll in September 2013 and universal only from the 2019 general election, prints a slip the voter can see through a window, so that an electronic count can be checked against a physical record.

A four-item chronology looks like it needs four dates, but the options rarely test all four. Here the four options split cleanly into two independent binary choices: does the sequence open with the EVM or with the EPIC, and does it close with NOTA or with the VVPAT? Settle the opening — 1982 comfortably beats 1993, so the sequence must start 2, 1 — and options (b) and (c) both fall. That leaves only (a) and (d), which differ solely in the last two places. NOTA and the VVPAT are both 2013 reforms, so the tie-break is not a bare year but the moment each became a general feature of Indian elections: NOTA was on every ballot from the November-December 2013 assembly polls, while the VVPAT went from one by-poll in September 2013 to 8 of 543 seats in 2014 and only reached the whole country in 2019. That gives 2, 1, 4, 3 — option (d).

• Electronic voting machines were first tried in May 1982 in the by-election to the Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala, in a limited number of polling stations
• After the Supreme Court held that the existing law did not permit machine voting, Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act, 1951 — passed December 1988, in force March 1989 — and EVMs were used in all 543 parliamentary constituencies for the first time in 2004
• The elector's photo identity card (EPIC) was introduced in 1993, during T. N. Seshan's tenure as Chief Election Commissioner
• The Supreme Court ruled on 27 September 2013 that the right to register a 'none of the above' vote must be available; NOTA drew about 1.1 per cent of the vote — over six million votes — in the 2014 general election, and got its own symbol on 18 September 2015
• The voter verifiable paper audit trail was first used in the Noksen assembly by-election in Nagaland in September 2013, ran as a pilot in 8 of 543 constituencies in 2014, and was extended to all 543 constituencies in the 2019 general election
• Because the Noksen VVPAT pilot narrowly predates the NOTA judgment, the last two items are separated by general adoption rather than by first use — a distinction worth knowing before you argue with a key

• Reading the printed item numbers as the answer. Here the items are listed 1 to 4 in an order that is deliberately not chronological, and option (b) rewards exactly that laziness
• Dating the EVM from 1989 or 2004 rather than from its first use in 1982. All three years are real milestones, but the earliest is what a chronology question wants
• Treating NOTA and the VVPAT as interchangeable 2013 reforms. They share a year, so you must know that NOTA went nationwide immediately while the VVPAT reached every constituency only in 2019
• Confusing NOTA with a 'right to reject'. NOTA records disapproval, but even if NOTA polls the most votes the candidate with the highest votes among the rest is still declared elected

UPPSC likes electoral machinery as a chronology or as a one-line factual item — which reform came first, who was the first Chief Election Commissioner, which Article creates the Election Commission. UPSC leans towards the legal side: what a particular amending Act or committee recommended, whether a stated power belongs to the Commission or to the government, and the exact status of the right to vote.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Electronic voting machines were used for the first time in an election in India in which of the following years?

  • (a)1977
  • (b)1982
  • (c)1989
  • (d)2004

  Answer(b) 1982 — EVMs were first tried in May 1982 in the by-election to the Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala; the law was amended to authorise them only in 1989, and they covered all 543 parliamentary constituencies from 2004.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  With reference to the NOTA option in Indian elections, consider the following statements: 1. It was introduced following a judgment of the Supreme Court of India in 2013. 2. If NOTA secures more votes than any candidate, the election in that constituency is countermanded and held afresh. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  • (a)1 only
  • (b)2 only
  • (c)Both 1 and 2
  • (d)Neither 1 nor 2

  Answer(a) 1 only — NOTA came from the Supreme Court's judgment of 27 September 2013, but it carries no power to void an election; the candidate polling the highest number of votes among the contestants is still declared elected.