EVM-VVPAT Hearing: Supreme Court's decision on petitions demanding EVM-VVPAT today
EVM-VVPAT Hearing: The Supreme Court will today pronounce its verdict on petitions seeking direction to match voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through electronic voting machines (EVMs) during elections. Has been done.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta had reserved its verdict on the petitions on April 18 after a two-day hearing. During the hearing that lasted for almost two days, the bench interacted with an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to understand the functioning of the EVMs.
‘All apprehensions have to be removed’
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission, had told the court that EVMs are standalone machines and cannot be tampered with, but the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out. Justice Dutta told Maninder Singh that there should be sanctity in the electoral process. You have to overcome apprehensions both in court and outside the court.
No one should fear that what is expected is not being done. Following the Election Commission's arguments, the Supreme Court told the petitioners that being overly suspicious of everything is a problem.
The bench told the counsel for the petitioners that everything cannot be doubted. You can't criticize everything. If ECI has done something good, you have to appreciate it. You shouldn't criticize everything.
Demand for cross-verification of EVM- VVPAT slips raised
The petitions have demanded cross-verification of every vote amid opposition's questions and apprehensions regarding the EVM system of voting. The petitions have been filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Aggarwal. Arun has demanded counting of all VVPAT slips.
ADR's plea sought to direct the court to the Election Commission and the Center to ensure that voters can verify through VVPAT that their vote has been counted as recorded.