New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to declare its verdict on Wednesday regarding several petitions requesting complete cross-verification of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) using the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The VVPAT serves as an autonomous method for voters to verify if their votes have been accurately recorded. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will pronounce the specific instructions on the plea in which order was reserved by the apex court on April 18.
During the hearing the top court pointed out the importance of voter’s trust in the electoral system and their satisfaction. The SC told petitioners seeking direction to go back to using ballot papers, not to suspect the efficacy of EVMs and appreciate if the Election Commission does good work.
During the nearly two-day hearing, the bench discussed with senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas for about an hour to grasp the operation of EVMs. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the Election Commission, asserted that EVMs are standalone devices invulnerable to tampering, although he acknowledged the potential for human error.
On April 16, the SC depreciated the criticism of EVMs and calls for going back to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”, reported PTI.
The NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) sought the court to change a decision made by the election commission in 2017. This decision was about replacing see-through glass on voting machines with opaque glass. With the new glass, a voter can only see their vote slip when a light is on for seven seconds.
The ADR has requested that the number of votes recorded by EVMs matches the votes that have been reliably recorded as cast. They also want to ensure that voters can confirm through the VVPAT slip that their vote, as seen on the paper slip, has been counted as recorded.
At present, VVPAT slips from five randomly chosen EVMs in each Assembly segment undergo verification.