Big decision of Supreme Court on VVPAT, demand to conduct elections through ballot paper rejected

The Supreme Court on Friday gave its verdict on the petition filed regarding matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the votes cast through EVM i.e. Electronic Voting Machine. After several days of hearing on the VVPAT issue, the Election Commission has got a big relief from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has rejected all the petitions demanding 100 percent matching of votes cast from EVMs with VVPAT slips during the ongoing second phase of Lok Sabha elections. Justice Sanjeev Khanna said that we have rejected all the petitions related to VVPAT.

Supreme Court rejected the petitions

Justice Sanjeev Khanna, in his order, asked the Election Commission to keep the symbol loading unit safe for 45 days. The court further said that questions cannot be raised blindly on the ready-made system. If any candidate wants verification then in that case a fee should be charged from him. If any tampering is found in the EVM then it should be refunded.

In fact, many organizations had filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding 100 percent matching of EVM and VVPAT slips. During the earlier hearing, the bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Khanna in the Supreme Court had reserved its decision. Justice Dipankar Dutta was also included in this bench. Earlier on Wednesday, the court had summoned an official of the Election Commission of India to clarify some technical aspects related to the functioning of EVMs.