New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday gave its verdict on the petition regarding matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the votes cast through EVM i.e. Electronic Voting Machine. After several days of hearing on the VVPAT case, the Election Commission has got a big relief from the Supreme Court.
Amidst the ongoing second phase of Lok Sabha election voting, the Supreme Court rejected all the petitions demanding 100 percent matching of votes cast through EVMs with VVPAT slips. Justice Sanjeev Khanna said that we have rejected all the petitions related to VVPAT.
Justice Sanjeev Khanna, in his order, asked the Election Commission to keep the symbol loading unit safe for 45 days. The court further said that questions cannot be raised on a ready-made system blindly. If a candidate demands verification, then in that case its cost should be recovered from him, if any tampering is found in the EVM then the cost should be refunded to him.
In fact, many organizations had filed petitions in the Supreme Court demanding 100 percent matching of EVM and VVPAT slips. During the earlier hearing, the bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Khanna in the Supreme Court had reserved its decision.
Justice Dipankar Dutta was also included in this bench. Earlier on Wednesday, the court had called an official of the Election Commission of India to clarify some technical aspects related to the functioning of EVMs.
