SC to issue directions today on pleas for cross-verification of votes cast through EVMs with VVPAT

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to issue directions in a matter related to pleas for raising VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) counts to 100 per cent with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections on Wednesday.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will take up petitions filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and others on April 24.

On April 18, the court had reserved its order in the matter after hearing counsel for the petitioners as well as the Deputy Election Commissioner and its counsel.

The court had then orally observed that everything about the EVMs cannot be suspected and sanctity of the electoral process must be maintained.

The bench had also emphasised that it is important to allay everybody's apprehensions in connection with the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections.

During the hearing, the EC's counsel submitted that there has been only one instance of a mismatch between the EVMs' and VVPATs' counts as mock poll data were not deleted.

The EC had also submitted that EVMs are standalone machines and they cannot be tampered with, and also the VVPAT cannot be tampered with. 

Concurring with the submission, the bench said paper ballots have huge drawbacks and "we do not want to even think about it".

The petitioners had contended the voter has the right under Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution to cross verify a vote cast by him and counted by paper vote of VVPAT in accordance with the purport and object of directions of this court in Subramanian Swamy case (2013).