[BREAKING] Supreme Court to hear tomorrow plea for VVPAT verification before vote counting

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will hear tomorrow a plea seeking verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) before the counting of votes..Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana agreed to hear the matter tomorrow after Senior Counsel Meenakshi Arora mentioned the matter. She said that verification of VVPAT is currently being done after the counting of votes is over, rendering the exercise moot. "Verification of VVPAT is after counting is over and by that time all election agents have left, so there is no transparency," she submitted."If verification is after counting is over then there is no use. Verification should be first when there are agents, parties, candidates etc," she added.CJI Ramana said that there are 2019 guidelines in this regard. He was referring to a Supreme Court order of April 8 in which the top court had directed that the number of EVMs with respect to which VVPAT paper trail is verified be raised from 1 EVM to 5 EVMs per Assembly Segment/ Assembly Constituency. That order was passed in a petition filed by leaders of various political parties seeking physical verification of the VVPAT paper trail for at least 50 per cent of the polling stations..Arora, however, said that currently verification is done only with respect to one booth per polling station. "It was said that 5 polling booths per polling station and now there is only one booth per station. Please hear this tomorrow. Counting is day after tomorrow (in assembly polls to 5 States)," she submitted.The CJI asked why the Court was being approached during the 11th hour."Last minute if you are asking, how can we help you? Day after tomorrow is counting. Even if we hear this tomorrow, can we issue such a direction to all States," he asked."Election Commission can be informed," said Arora.The Court then asked Election Commission to be present tomorrow,"Let us see what can be done," the CJI remarked. .The Supreme Court had in May 2019 dismissed a plea filed by some technocrats seeking Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification of all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).