New Delhi: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday (April 26) rejected the pleas seeking 100% cross-verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) data with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records.
The verdict was delivered by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta. Though the cases were reserved for orders on April 18, they were listed again on April 24 as the Bench wanted some technical clarifications from the Election Commission. Taking into consideration the answers given, the orders were pronounced today.
Referring to the conclusion of the judgments, Justice Khanna said in Court that the prayers for reverting to ballot paper voting, complete EVM-VVPAT verification, giving VVPAT slips to voters to put them in the ballot box have been rejected. “We have rejected all of them, after referring to the protocol in place, technical aspects and data which is on record,” Justice Khanna said.
A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta pronounced the verdict. Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Khanna said that the court had elaborately discussed the protocols and technical aspects and had hence rejected the request for 100 percent verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips. “One suggestion which can be examined by the Election Commission of India would be whether there can be electronic machines for counting paper slips and whether there can be a bar code along with the symbols as regards which party,” he added.
However, the Bench passed on two directions. The first was that on completion of symbol loading process in VVPATs undertaken on or after 1.5.2024, the Symbol Loading Units (SLU) shall be sealed and secured in container and the sealed container would be kept in strong room along with EVMs for at least 45 days the post results.
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