Ahead of its verdict today on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections, the Supreme Court today morning sought the presence of a few senior official of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the court at 2 pm to answer a few queries.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta has sought answers to the following five questions.
“We went through the FAQs. We just wanted three-four clarifications. We don’t want to be factually wrong but doubly sure in our findings and hence we thought of seeking the clarification,” the bench told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who was appearing for the EC.
It asked Bhati to call senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas at 2 PM. Vyas had earlier given a presentation to the court on the functioning of the EVMs.
On April 18, the top court reserved its verdict on the batch of pleas.
Underscoring the importance of voter satisfaction and trust in the electoral system, the top court had during the hearing told petitioners, who sought its direction to go back to using ballot papers, not to suspect the efficacy of EVMs and appreciate if the Election Commission does good work.
NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR), one of the petitioners, sought reversal of the poll panel’s 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds.
On April 16, the top court had deprecated criticism of EVMs and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls began on April 19 and the second phase is slated to be held on April 26.
The ADR has sought matching the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably “recorded as cast” and to ensure the voter is able to verify through VVPAT slip that his vote, as recorded on the paper slip, has been “counted as recorded”.
With inputs from agencies
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SC poses five questions to EC on EVM-VVPAT case, calls poll panel official to give clarification
