Top court gives EC clean chit on EVM-VVPAT, says barring one no case of vote mismatch since 2019

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday said that since 2019 the Election Commission of India has, except for one discrepancy, not detected any single case of vote mismatch or wrong recording of votes on random VVPAT verification of five polling booths per assembly constituency.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, or VVPAT, is an independent vote verification system which enables electors to see whether their votes have been recorded correctly.

On April 8, 2019, the top court had directed the EC to conduct random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs at five polling booths per assembly constituency or per assembly segment in a Parliamentary constituency.

"ECI has conducted random VVPAT verification of 5 polling booths per assembly segment/constituency for 41,629 EVMs-VVPATs. Further, more than 4 crore VVPAT slips have been tallied with the electronic counts of their control units. Not even a single case of mismatch, or wrong recording of votes has been detected," the SC said.

The bench said that under rule 56D of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which deals with scrutiny of paper trails, returning officers have allowed VVPAT slip recounting in 100 cases since 2017.

"The VVPAT slip count matched with the electronic count recorded in the control unit in all cases," the bench said and added, "In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, 20,687 VVPAT slips were physically counted, and except in one case, no discrepancy or mismatch was noticed." Referring to the only discrepancy that was detected, the bench said it was found during mandatory verification of VVPAT slips happened in polling station- 63, Mydukur Assembly Constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

"On verification, it was found that the discrepancy had arisen on account of failure of the presiding officer to delete the mock poll data," it said, adding, "while it is not possible to rule out human errors, paragraph 14.5 of Chapter 14 of the Manual on EVM and VVPATs deals with such situations and lays down the protocol which is to be followed." On the performance of the EVMs, the bench said more than 118 crore electors have cast their votes since the EVMs have been introduced.

"In 2019, about 61.4 crore voters had cast their votes in 10.35 lakh polling stations. 23.3 lakh ballot units, 16.35 lakh control units and 17.40 lakhs VVPAT units were used in the 2019 General Elections.

"For the purpose of the 2024 General Elections, 10.48 lakh polling stations have been established to enable 97 crore registered voters to cast their votes. 21.60 lakh ballot units, 16.80 lakh control units and 17.7 lakh VVPAT units have been made ready for being used," it said.

The bench said that during the course of hearing, its attention was drawn to Rule 49MA, which permits an elector to raise a complaint regarding the mismatch between the name and symbol of the candidate shown on paper slip generated by the VVPAT and the vote cast on the ballot unit.

"Such an elector is required to make a written declaration to the presiding officer. There have been 26 such cases in which the electors have complained under Rule 49MA. There is not even a single case in which any mismatch or defect was found," it said. PTI