The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed a plea seeking 100 per cent matching of the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) vote count to ensure transparency in the elections. The court said that it will not interfere in the middle of the poll process.
Supreme Court of India rejects the plea seeking 100% VVPAT verification of votes: Election Commission of India
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“We are not going to interfere in the middle of the election process,” a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian noted.
“The special leave petition is dismissed. As a sequel to the above, pending interlocutory applications, if any, stand disposed of,” the bench said in its order.
The judgment came in the wake of the ongoing election process in the state of West Bengal. The election process for the other four states has already been over and the counting of the votes for all the seats will be held on May 2.
The plea was filed by Trinamool Congress leader Gopal Seth, who had approached the top court after being rebuffed by the Calcutta High Court.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, the counsel contended that the high court had said that the apex court had earlier passed the order on this. However, the bench of the Supreme Court did not entertain his requests and dismissed the plea.
The Supreme Court in 2019 had rejected a plea filed by several political parties for 50 per cent VVPAT verification during the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2019, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea by several political parties for 50% VVPAT verification during the Lok Sabha elections. However, the top court had then directed the EC to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment.
