Verify VVPAT with Counted Votes in 10 percent polling stations in each Constituency, Kamal Nath moves SC

A petition has been filed in Supreme Court by Congress leader and Member of Parliament, Kamal Nath praying that VVPAT slips be verified with votes counted in at least 10 percent randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency/ Assembly segment..The petition drawn by advocates Varun K Chopra and Aljo K Joseph and settled by Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha was mentioned by Chopra today before Chief Justice of India who agreed to list the matter next week..The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail or 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..In October 2013, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement VVPAT in a phased manner on an all India basis..Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh (MP) is slated to be held in November-December 2018. The current petition has been filed in the light of the same..The petitioner has submitted that representations were made by various political parties with regard to the allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Pursuant to the same an all-party meeting was convened by the Election Commission in 2017. The Election Commission in the said meeting assured that VVPAT machines will be used for all forthcoming elections..It is the petitioner’s contention that no regulations or provisions have been made till date to make First Level Checking (FLC) of VVPAT stricter although malfunctioning of VVPAT was admitted during mock poll and by-elections in Kairana and Bhandara Parliamentary Constituencies. The Election Commission has not published any updated instructions regarding FLCs especially for State of Madhya Pradesh and FLC is ongoing in the State for the upcoming elections..The petitioner has further submitted that despite Supreme court’s directives to ensure 100 percent coverage of VVPATs in all elections, inordinate delays in manufacturing, malfunctioning and operational difficulties don’t make 100 percent VVPAT coverage seem likely in upcoming Assembly Elections in MP unless the same machines which were used in the previous Utter Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections are used in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. This raises serious doubts about the sanctity of the election process, the petition states..The petitioner has also stated that the Election Commission is using private transporters for transportation of EVMS..“The election commission is not using any state machinery nor the central machinery for the transportation of the EVM’s. Private transporters are being used for the transportation of the EVM. It was proved in the past that they have no accountability for such machine nor for the safety of the same. The incidents in the past after the Gujarat and Karnataka election that large No. of EVMs were found in the road either after some accidents or otherwise in the road unattended for long hours neither by the private transporter nor by any official of the election commotion. This actually shows the callous attitude of the ECI and state election officers in handling the EVM’s and VVPAT.” .Another point raised by the petitioner pertains to the time period for which the VVPAT paper trail is visible to the voter. At present, it is visible only for seven seconds. It is the petitioner’s case that majority of voters, who are not well versed with technology will not be able to look at the paper trail and confirm if the VVPAT is showing the correct slip. In the absence of any empirical study with regard to the capability of the voter to identify the votes cast, the time fixed by the ECI for display as seven seconds is arbitrary and must be increased to a reasonable time i.e fifteen seconds, the petition states..Importantly, it is the petitioner’s contention that verification of VVPAT slips with the votes counted is done only in one randomly selected polling station in an Assembly constituency in Assembly elections and in each Assembly segment in case of Parliamentary election. This, Kamal Nath has argued, is insufficient..The following prayers have thus been made by the petitioner:.Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to issue directions for conducting VVPAT verification in at least 10 percent randomly selected polling stations in each assembly constituency/assembly segment to ensure free and fair elections;Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to publish voter list in text format as per rules, and to expeditiously decide all complaints with respect to final publication of voter list under Rules 22 (1) (c) of The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and to prohibit deletion of voters from the voter list without intimation to political parties;Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to issue fresh guidelines on VVPAT whilst considering the grounds/issues raised in the present writ petition, including but not limited to random VVPAT checks, mock polls and recounting, quality of Thermal Paper and printing, collection of Paper Trails and storage, unique identification numbers on VVPAT and paper trail collection boxes, transportation of EVMs and VVPAT before and after polls, First Level Checking (FLC) of VVPAT, and posting of officials.