More Paper Trail Machine Slips Must Be Counted, Top Court Tells Poll Body

The count of slips for VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Trail Audit) machines used has to be increased for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court told the Election Commission today. Asking why the Commission did not increase the number or VVPATs for counting and tallying it with EVM on its own, the court asked it to explain within three days what difficulties it was facing in this regard.

"We want you to increase the counting of VVPAT slips. Right now, you are counting only one VVPAT in one polling station. On your own, can you increase this number," Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said.

Explaining that one VVPAT is used for counting in each assembly segment, the Commission said, "We have adequate reasons to believe our system is working fine. Even then we want to improve".

"No institution, including the judiciary should insulate itself from suggestions," said Chief Justice Gogoi. "If you are confident, why didn't you bring VVPAT on your own? You wanted Supreme Court's orders to get VVPAT... You know how much opposition the court faced from Election Commission on bringing VVPAT."

The VVPAT machines are used to check the functionality of the Electronic Voting machines, by tallying the slips from the former with the votes cast. This time, the Commission has assured 100 per cent use of VVPATs so the voter can also see if the machine has recorded the vote correctly.

The judges said they would hear the case on April 1, in which a senior officer of the Commission is assisting the court.

The bench, led by Chief Justice Gogoi, is hearing a petition by 21 Opposition parties that calls for 50 per cent of VVPAT to be tallied with the voting machines in the coming national elections.

Demanding that Electronic Voting Machines be made tinker-proof, the petitioners said the safety standards for the EVMs be made more strict.

In their petition, the opposition leaders quoted the top court's 1975 verdict in the Indira Nehru Gandhi versus Raj Narain case, to bolster their argument that free and fair elections are part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

In a judgment delivered in 2013, the Supreme Court also held that VVPAT is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections, the petitioners further argued.

An expert panel of Indian Statistical Institute, meanwhile, submitted its report on the quantum for VVPAT slips that can be counted and tallied with EVMs. The opposition parties want 10 to 30 per cent of VVPAT slips to be counted.

The controversy over the EVMS has been continuing since the assembly elections in early 2017, when the BJP won a massive victory in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati and the Congress alleged that the voting machines had been tampered with on behalf of the BJP. Arvind Kejriwal, who party lost to the Congress in Punjab, had come up with similar elections.

None of the parties, however, turned up last year when the Election Commission challenged anyone to hack into the voting machines.