SC seeks EC’s, Centre’s reply on full VVPAT count plea; Congress hails move
The plea said if simultaneous verification is done and more officers are deployed for counting, complete VVPAT verification can be done in five-six hours
The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Election Commission (EC) and the Centre on a plea seeking a complete count of VVPAT slips in polls as opposed to the current practice of verification of only five randomly-selected EVMs through VVPAT paper slips.
The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is an independent vote-verification system that allows an elector to see whether his/her vote was cast correctly. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that the voter can view. The slip is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened in case of a dispute.
Congress reaction
The Congress on Monday (April 1) hailed the court’s notice as an “important first step” and said the matter should be decided before the Lok Sabha polls commence.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote, “The Supreme Court has issued a notice today to the Election Commission on the issue of VVPATs. It bears constant repetition that the Election Commission has refused to meet a delegation of INDIA (bloc) party leaders who have been demanding 100 per cent VVPATs in order to increase public confidence in EVMs and to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.”
“The notice is an important first step, but for it to be meaningful, the matter should be decided before the elections commence,” Ramesh added.
Previous order
The top court, on April 8, 2019, had ordered the EC to increase the number of EVMs that undergo VVPAT physical verification from one to five per Assembly segment in a parliamentary constituency.
A Bench comprising justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta on Monday (April 1) took note of the submissions of lawyers representing activist Arun Kumar Agrawal seeking a complete count of VVPAT slips in elections as opposed to the verification of only five randomly-selected EVMs through VVPAT paper slips.
It issued notices to the EC and the Centre on the plea which may be listed for hearing on May 17.
Senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Neha Rathi appeared for Agrawal.
Simultaneous verification
The plea assailed the EC’s guideline that mandates that VVPAT verification shall be done sequentially, one after the other. The plea said if simultaneous verification is done and more officers are deployed for counting in each Assembly constituency, complete VVPAT verification can be done in five-six hours.
The government has spent nearly Rs 5,000 crore on purchase of nearly 24 lakh VVPATs but presently, VVPAT slips of only about 20,000 VVPATs are verified, it said.
Given that many questions are being raised by experts with regard to VVPATs and EVMs and the fact that a large number of discrepancies between EVM and VVPAT vote count have been reported in the past, it is imperative that all VVPAT slips are counted and a voter is given an opportunity to properly verify that his vote as cast in the ballot is also counted by allowing him to physically drop his/her VVPAT slip in the ballot box, the plea said.
The top court issued the notice and tagged it with pending matters on the issue.
(With agency inputs)
