Supreme Court Seeks Election Commission's Response To Plea For Full VVPAT Paper Slip Counting
supreme court seeks election commission’s response to plea for full vvpat paper slip counting
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Election Commission regarding a petition advocating for the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections, instead of verifying only five randomly selected Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.
A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued the notice to the poll body and combined the plea filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Aggarwal with a similar petition filed by an NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which seeks similar reliefs.
The petition, presented by Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Neha Rathi, challenges the Election Commission’s guidelines that require sequential VVPAT verification, causing undue delays. It argues that simultaneous verification and the deployment of more officers for counting in each assembly constituency could allow for complete VVPAT verification in just five to six hours.
Furthermore, the plea highlights that despite significant expenditure on the purchase of nearly 24 lakh VVPATs, only approximately 20,000 VVPAT slips are presently verified. It emphasises the importance of counting all VVPAT slips to ensure voter confidence and proper verification of votes cast.
The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is an independent system for verifying votes, allowing voters to confirm the accuracy of their recorded choices. It produces a paper slip displaying the chosen candidate’s name or symbol, visible through a transparent window for a brief period, enabling voters to verify their selections. Subsequently, the paper slips are stored in sealed containers affixed to the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), serving as physical records for verification in the event of any discrepancies in electronic voting outcomes.