Today (18th April): The Supreme Court is set to hear a plea to tally Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips during elections. The petition aims to ensure accuracy and integrity in the electoral process and seeks expanded verification of all EVM votes with VVPAT records. This plea challenges the current guidelines and emphasizes the need for stringent punishment to prevent manipulation.
Today 1st April,The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Election Commission of India in response to a plea for thorough verification of Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The petition challenges the current guideline of sequential VVPAT verification and advocates for matching every EVM vote with its corresponding VVPAT slip. Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta have grouped the plea with other pending cases regarding EVM and VVPAT. The petitioner, Arun Kumar Agrawal, argues for faster verification and physical deposit of VVPAT slips, emphasizing the need for accurate ballot counting. This comes amidst concerns over discrepancies between EVM and VVPAT vote counts. The matter has been the subject of extensive debate and previous petitions regarding VVPAT verification.
The Supreme Court of India today declined to entertain a plea regarding Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) irregularities, citing past examinations of similar issues. Justices emphasized the inherent flaws and merits of every system, expressing judicial fatigue over repetitive petitions. They reiterated the need to move forward and not base legal challenges on assumptions, underlining their discretion in revisiting settled issues.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has firmly defended the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs), emphasizing their non-tamperable nature. In a detailed affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the ECI stated, “The electronic voting machines are non-tamperable, both due to technological measures, and also due to strict administrative and security procedures laid out by […]