A few days before Lok Sabha Elections kick off, the Supreme Court has passed a significant order in relation to VVPAT paper trail verification..The Supreme Court has ordered 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..The order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna..The Court said that after having considered the objections of the Election Commission of India (ECI), stated that it was of the view that the if the number of EVMs in respect of which VVPAT paper slips is to be subjected to physical scrutiny is increased from 1 to 5, the additional manpower that would be required would not be difficult for the ECI to provide nor would the declaration of the result be substantially delayed..In fact, if the said number is increased to 5, the process of verification can be done by the same team of Polling Staff and supervisors/officials, the Court held..The Court therefore, directed that the number of EVMs with respect to which VVPAT paper trail verification be held should be raised to 5 for the greater satisfaction of political parties and the electorate..“It is, therefore, our considered view that having regard to the totality of the facts of the case and need to generate the greatest degree of satisfaction in all with regard to the full accuracy of the election results, the number of EVMs that would now be subjected to verification so far as VVPAT paper trail is concerned would be 5 per Assembly Constituency or Assembly Segments in a Parliamentary Constituency instead of what is provided by Guideline No. 16.6, namely, one machine per Assembly Constituency or Assembly Segment in a Parliamentary Constituency.”.Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners along with advocates Saif Mahmood, Amit Bhandari, Avishkar Singhvi, Mayank Mikhail Mukherjee and Arjun Singh Bhati. .The 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..The petition had also called for the quashing of an Election Commission guideline stating that VVPAT will only be used for randomly selected polling stations for each assembly segment in case of Lok Sabha elections. The Court had issued notice in the matter on March 21..During a previous hearing on March 25, the Supreme Court had ordered the Election Commission of India to file an affidavit setting out reasons as to why it is not in favour of physical verification of VVPAT paper trail for more than one polling station per assembly segment..The Bench had asked Deputy Election Commissioner – EVMs Sudip Jain whether the ECI could increase the number of polling stations in which physical verification of VVPAT trail can be done. The Bench also hinted that the ECI should increase it..“Will you be able to increase it? We would like you to increase it”, CJI Gogoi had said..In its response, the ECI had submitted that if VVPAT slips are to be manually counted for half of the EVMS, the time taken for counting of votes will increase by about 6 days..In their rejoinder affidavit, the petitioners had contended that the same is not a serious delay if it ensures the integrity of the electoral process..Read the order below.
A few days before Lok Sabha Elections kick off, the Supreme Court has passed a significant order in relation to VVPAT paper trail verification..The Supreme Court has ordered 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..The order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna..The Court said that after having considered the objections of the Election Commission of India (ECI), stated that it was of the view that the if the number of EVMs in respect of which VVPAT paper slips is to be subjected to physical scrutiny is increased from 1 to 5, the additional manpower that would be required would not be difficult for the ECI to provide nor would the declaration of the result be substantially delayed..In fact, if the said number is increased to 5, the process of verification can be done by the same team of Polling Staff and supervisors/officials, the Court held..The Court therefore, directed that the number of EVMs with respect to which VVPAT paper trail verification be held should be raised to 5 for the greater satisfaction of political parties and the electorate..“It is, therefore, our considered view that having regard to the totality of the facts of the case and need to generate the greatest degree of satisfaction in all with regard to the full accuracy of the election results, the number of EVMs that would now be subjected to verification so far as VVPAT paper trail is concerned would be 5 per Assembly Constituency or Assembly Segments in a Parliamentary Constituency instead of what is provided by Guideline No. 16.6, namely, one machine per Assembly Constituency or Assembly Segment in a Parliamentary Constituency.”.Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners along with advocates Saif Mahmood, Amit Bhandari, Avishkar Singhvi, Mayank Mikhail Mukherjee and Arjun Singh Bhati. .The 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..The petition had also called for the quashing of an Election Commission guideline stating that VVPAT will only be used for randomly selected polling stations for each assembly segment in case of Lok Sabha elections. The Court had issued notice in the matter on March 21..During a previous hearing on March 25, the Supreme Court had ordered the Election Commission of India to file an affidavit setting out reasons as to why it is not in favour of physical verification of VVPAT paper trail for more than one polling station per assembly segment..The Bench had asked Deputy Election Commissioner – EVMs Sudip Jain whether the ECI could increase the number of polling stations in which physical verification of VVPAT trail can be done. The Bench also hinted that the ECI should increase it..“Will you be able to increase it? We would like you to increase it”, CJI Gogoi had said..In its response, the ECI had submitted that if VVPAT slips are to be manually counted for half of the EVMS, the time taken for counting of votes will increase by about 6 days..In their rejoinder affidavit, the petitioners had contended that the same is not a serious delay if it ensures the integrity of the electoral process..Read the order below.
