Today(on 24th April), The Supreme Court is expected to issue directions on petitions seeking 100% cross-verification of votes recorded in EVMs with VVPAT slips, enhancing transparency in the electoral process. VVPAT serves as an independent mechanism for voters to verify the accuracy of their votes.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today(on 24th April), is set to pronounce certain directions on Wednesday regarding petitions seeking 100 percent cross-verification of votes recorded in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The VVPAT system serves as an independent vote verification mechanism, allowing voters to confirm whether their votes have been accurately registered.
The said petitions, listed as “For Directions,” were heard by a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, who reserved judgment on April 18 after two days of extensive deliberation. Currently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) randomly verifies VVPAT slips from five polling booths per assembly segment in a Parliamentary constituency, as per a 2019 Supreme Court directive that called for an increase in verification from one polling booth to five per assembly segment.
During the hearing, the court requested the Election Commission to provide an explanation of the VVPAT system’s functioning. The bench engaged in a detailed discussion with senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas for nearly an hour, aiming to gain a comprehensive understanding of EVM operations.
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The petitioners argued in favor of implementing measures that enhance voters’ confidence, asserting that a slight delay in result announcements is a small price to pay for the larger objective of a fair and transparent election process. Additionally, the bench expressed reservations about the manual counting process during the hearing, noting that human intervention can lead to potential issues.
Furthermore, the court advised the petitioners who advocated for a return to the use of ballot papers not to doubt the effectiveness of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and to appreciate the Election Commission’s efforts in ensuring a well-functioning electoral system.
Among the petitioners, the NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) sought a reversal of the poll panel’s 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass, allowing voters to view the slip for only seven seconds when the light is on.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Election Commission, contended that EVMs are standalone machines that cannot be tampered with, but acknowledged the possibility of human error.
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The ADR has requested a matching of the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably “recorded as cast” and emphasized the importance of ensuring that voters are able to verify through VVPAT slips that their votes have been “counted as recorded.”
