After NOTA, EVMs now to have a “Paper Audit Trail”: SC directs Election Commission to implement VVPAT on nationwide basis

In another landmark judgment aimed at the empowerment of the Indian electorate, the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in a phased manner on an all India basis..The judgment was delivered today by a Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Subramanian Swamy (Dr. Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India, SLP (c) 13735/2012) seeking implementation of VVPAT to arrest election frauds and to ensure verification of choice of candidates by the voter..Senior Advocates Ashok Desai and Meenakshi Arora represented the ECI..The ECI had undertaken to implement VVPAT in the by election to the 51 Nosken Assembly Constituency in the State of Nagaland to ascertain its practicality and usefulness. In the hearing, which took place on Friday last week, the Court had been apprised about its successful implementation in Nagaland. Further, the Ministry of Law and Justice had amended the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to enable use of VVPAT after the ECI took up the matter with the Ministry. .However, the ECI had cited technical difficulties in using VVPAT in the coming parliamentary elections on an all India basis. Senior Advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the ECI, had said that it would not be possible to use VVPAT machines in the 10 lakh polling booths across the country in the upcoming parliamentary elections. He argued that only 2 companies, Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, manufactured VVPAT machines and both had expressed their inability to churn out the requisite number of machines in the limited time span. He had, however, conveyed the willingness of the ECI to implement VVPAT in a phased manner across the country..In the judgment pronounced today, the Court held that VVPAT was a system of “printing paper trail for the purpose of verification of choice of candidates”. Citing its successful implementation in Nagaland by elections, the Court proceeded to hold that VVPAT is indispensable to free and fair elections and will help ensure accuracy in voting and also bring confidence to voters..The Court, therefore, directed the ECI to implement VVPAT in a phased manner for the upcoming General Elections in 2014 while asking the Centre to provide the required financial assistance. The Court also observed that VVPAT would help in manual counting of votes in the event technical glitches plague electronic counting..The VVPAT is a verification system which enables voters to ascertain whether their votes were cast correctly or not. When a voter casts his vote using the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), a ballot slip containing the serial number, name of the candidate and poll symbol will be printed thereby allowing the voter to verify whether his vote was recorded correctly or not. This ballot slip will be visible to the voter for about 5 seconds behind a ballot slip viewing window. After this, the slip will get cut and will fall into a compartment. .This is the second judgment delivered in recent months that is likely to have a huge impact on Indian elections. In a judgment delivered on September 27, 2013 the Supreme Court had directed the insertion of a “None of the Above” option in EVM machines, holding that right to free and fair elections was a part of the basic structure of the Constitution..Full text of the judgment is given below.