Supreme Court on EVM-VVPAT: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) that the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) slips should be counted 100 percent manually in addition to electronic counting by the control unit of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Immediately, the petitioner was told that a decision had already been given in this regard and he should not come here again.
A bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V Viswanathan declined to interfere with the decision of the Delhi High Court which had earlier dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the appellant.
The petitioner Hansraj Jain demanded that along with EVMs, there should be 100% manual counting of all VVPAT slips. Also, the voter should get the right to check the slip. The court said that the decision has already been given on this issue, so there is no need for a re-hearing.
During the course of the hearing, the CJI Khanna-led Bench remarked that it would not be examining the same issues over and over again. Ultimately, the apex court dismissed the special leave petition filed by the appellant-PIL litigant.
In April 2024, the Supreme Court had dismissed a clutch of petitions seeking mandatory cross-verification of the votes cast in EVMs with VVPAT slips.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna (now CJI) and Dipankar Datta said that while it acknowledged the fundamental right of voters to ensure their vote is accurately recorded and counted, the same cannot be equated with the right to 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips, or a right to physical access to the VVPAT slips, which the voter should be permitted to put in the drop box.
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