Supreme Court junks yet another petition to tally VVPAT slips with EVM votes

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a fresh petition seeking directions to ensure that more Voter Verifiable Paper Trail (VVPAT) slips are tallied with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (VVPAT) [Mohit Kumar Bhandari v. Election Commission of India]..Currently, only 5 EVMs are verified with VVPAT per assembly segment in Lok Sabha elections. .A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta was prompt to clarify that no further petition on the issue could be entertained, since another Division Bench of the Supreme Court has already rejected such a plea recently. "Coordinate Bench has already taken a detailed view. Sorry," Justice Gavai told the petitioner. .A Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta had on April 26 (Friday) dismissed a plea to tally all VVPAT slips with votes cast through EVMs and stood by the reliability of EVM votes.The same Bench had also turned down a suggestion to go back to casting votes through paper ballot instead of EVMs..That verdict came in three petitions seeking directions to tally VVPAT slips with votes cast through EVMs during elections.One of the petitioners had prayed that each and every EVM vote be tallied against VVPAT slips.Another plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) urged that VVPAT slips must be tallied with votes cast through EVMs so that citizens can confirm that their vote has been ‘counted as recorded’ and ‘recorded as cast.'.Tallying of VVPAT slips with EVMs has always been a subject of contention.Before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, leaders of around 21 opposition political parties had moved the apex court seeking VVPAT verification of at least 50 percent of all EVMs.Back then, ECI used to tally only one random EVM per assembly segment with VVPAT.On April 8, 2019, the apex court raised this number from 1 to 5 and disposed of the plea. In May 2019, the Court dismissed a plea filed by some technocrats seeking VVPAT verification of all EVMs.