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EVM-VVPAT Verification Case: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 24 issued directions on pleas seeking full cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The Supreme Court has sought some clarification from the Election Commission of India in the matter related to 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.
The Supreme Court asked the ECI official to appear before it today at 2 pm and answer some of its questions. VVPAT is an independent vote verification system that enables voters to check whether their vote has been cast correctly.
The Supreme Court bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta is going to give instructions on those petitions, on which the Supreme Court had reserved its decision on April 18. The seven-phase Lok Sabha elections 2024 began on April 19 and the second phase of voting is scheduled for April 26.
Highlights of arguments on 100% EVM-VVPAT verification in SC
One of the petitioners, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), sought to reverse the 2017 decision to replace transparent glass with opaque glass on VVPAT machines, under which voters can see the slip only for seven seconds when the lights are switched on. .
ADR seeks to match the count in EVMs with the votes validly recorded and ensure that the voter can verify through the VVPAT slip that his vote recorded on the paper slip is counted as one record .
During the nearly two-day hearing, the Supreme Court told the petitioners, who had sought directions to revert to the use of ballot papers, not to doubt the effectiveness of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and if the Election Commission is doing a good job. If so, appreciate it. ,
According to news agency PTI, during the hearing, the bench talked to Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitish Kumar Vyas for about an hour to understand the functioning of EVMs and told lawyer Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO that voters' satisfaction and trust should be maintained. Is. Origin of election process.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for ECI, said EVMs are standalone machines and cannot be tampered with, but the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out. On 16 April, the Supreme Court condemned criticism of EVMs and called for the return of ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a “huge task” and attempts should not be made to “destroy the system”.