Verification of VVPAT with Counted Votes: Supreme Court seeks response of Election Commission

The Supreme Court yesterday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (EC) in two petitions praying that VVPAT slips be verified with votes counted in at least 10 percent randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency/ Assembly segment..The petitions filed by Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot were heard by the Bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan..Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, Anup George Chaudhury, June Chaudhury and advocates Varun K Chopra, Shelna K and Aljo K Joseph appeared for the petitioners..The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail or VVPAT is a verification system which enables voters to ascertain whether their votes were cast correctly or not. When a voter casts his vote using the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), a ballot slip containing the serial number, name of the candidate and poll symbol will be printed thereby allowing the voter to verify whether his vote was recorded correctly or not. This ballot slip will be visible to the voter for about 5 seconds behind a ballot slip viewing window. After this, the slip will get cut and will fall into a compartment..In October 2013, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to implement VVPAT in a phased manner on an all India basis..Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh (MP) is slated to be held in November-December 2018. The current petition has been filed in the light of the same..Kamal Nath has submitted that representations were made by various political parties with regard to the allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Pursuant to the same an all-party meeting was convened by the Election Commission in 2017. The Election Commission in the said meeting assured that VVPAT machines will be used for all forthcoming elections..It is the petitioner’s contention that no regulations or provisions have been made till date to make First Level Checking (FLC) of VVPAT stricter although malfunctioning of VVPAT was admitted during mock poll and by-elections in Kairana and Bhandara Parliamentary Constituencies. The Election Commission has not published any updated instructions regarding FLCs especially for State of Madhya Pradesh and FLC is ongoing in the State for the upcoming elections..Kamal Nath has further submitted that despite Supreme court’s directives to ensure 100 percent coverage of VVPATs in all elections, inordinate delays in manufacturing, malfunctioning and operational difficulties don’t make 100 percent VVPAT coverage seem likely in upcoming Assembly Elections in MP unless the same machines which were used in the previous Utter Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections are used in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. This raises serious doubts about the sanctity of the election process, the petition states..The petitioner has also stated that the Election Commission is using private transporters for transportation of EVMS..Kamal Nath’s petition has prayed for VVPAT slips to be verified with votes counted in at least 10 percent randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency/ Assembly segment..The petitioners have also sought a direction to be issued to the EC to publish a final voter list and to resolve all complaints regarding the final voter list expeditiously as well as for fresh guidelines on VVPAT to be issued by the EC..After hearing the petitioners, the Court has sought the Election Commission’s response and will hear the case next on August 31. The Court also issued notice on prayers for interim relief..Read Order: