The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a fresh petition seeking restoration of the ballot system of voting, saying that candidates and parties claim EVMs have been tampered with only when they lose but remain silent when they win.

"When Mr Chandrababu Naidu or Mr Reddy lost, they said EVMs were tampered with and when they won they don't say anything," the bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice P.B. Varale orally remarked while refusing to entertain the PIL filed by evangelist K.A. Paul.

The bench made the oral observation after the petitioner, appearing in person, argued that even leaders like Andhra Pradesh chief minister Naidu and his predecessor Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy have at different times alleged that EVMs have been tampered with.

"What happens is that when you win the election, EVMs are not tampered with, but when you lose the election, EVMs are tampered with," Justice Nath, heading the bench, said.

The court was dealing with a PIL by Paul, who had alleged tampering of EVMs and sought restoration of the ballot system, besides wanting the court to pass guidelines on disqualification of candidates who bribe voters.

He alleged that the election process had been vitiated as voters were being bribed by candidates. This prompted the bench to say: "We never received any money for any elections." Paul's plea that his petition was being supported by over 180 retired civil servants and judges failed to convince the bench.

The petitioner told the court that over 180 countries had opted for the ballot system of voting and even American business tycoon Elon Musk had raised concerns over the potential manipulation of EVMs.

The bench asked the petitioner before dismissing the petition: "Why don't you want to be different from the rest of the world?"

On April 26, the court upheld the credibility of EVMs, saying there are several inbuilt safeguards to prevent tampering but issued a slew of guidelines to the Election Commission to “further strengthen the integrity of the election process”.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta, while writing separate but concurrent judgments upholding the constitutional validity of EVMs, had in April dismissed a batch of PILs filed by the Association for Democratic Rights and other petitioners seeking restoration of ballots.