The Supreme Court on Tuesday has agreed to hear a PIL by an RTI activist seeking that VVPAT slips be verified before counting the votes of assembly elections which is scheduled on March 10, 2022. The PIL filed by The RTI Activist Rakesh Kumar has been listed before the court as a matter of urgent listing and will be heard before the court tomorrow on March 9.
Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the PIL before the Chief Justice of India for urgent listing for tomorrow as the counting of votes in five states which underwent assembly elections is due on March 10, just a day ahead. Chief Justice N V Ramana questioned the timing of the PIL and stated that it has put pressure on the court to issue a direction within very little time. He asked, “If you come at the last minute, how can we help? The counting is the day after tomorrow. Even if we hear this tomorrow, can we issue such a direction?”
SC agrees to hear the PIL seeking VVPAT verification at the beginning of counting of EVM votes@harishvnair1 Joins the broadcast with Prathibha Chandran for the latest updates#March10WithTimesNow #AssemblyElections2022 #SC pic.twitter.com/7gRgFabqPp
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 8, 2022
To this, Adv. Arora replied that there is no point in verifying the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips before the counting as at that time election agents would not be present. However, she asked whether the Election Commission can be asked to be present tomorrow for a hearing. Following this CJI Ramana agreed, “Let the Election Commission of India be here tomorrow, let us see what can be done”, CJI said.
Rakesh Kumar in his application has sought that the number of polling booths where mandatory VVPAT verification is done should be increased from 5 per constituency to 25 or in proportion to the size of the constituency. In his petition, he contended that during the last round of counting of votes, counting the VVPAT paper slips of the 5 randomly selected polling stations is not properly done after the candidates and/or their agents become aware of the outcome of the elections.
The VVPAT is a process of providing automated feedback to voters using a ballotless electronic voting machine (EVM). In 2019, when the then Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu submitted a writ petition in the apex court over the suspicion in the accuracy of the EVMs, The SC had directed the Election Commission to increase the physical VVPAT verification from 1 to 5 booths per constituency.
SC rejects urgent hearing petition of Chandrababu Naidu
As per the latest reports, the SC has declined to urgently hear a petition filed by former Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu seeking a change in the procedure of VVPAT verification ahead of the March 10 counting.
#Alert
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) March 8, 2022
SC declines urgent hearing to former AP CM Chandrababu Naidu for change in the procedure for VVPAT verification ahead of March 10 counting of votes in Assembly polls for five states. It had earlier indicated a hearing on the petition on Wednesday.
The EVM hacking bogey
As soon as the possible outcomes of the elections are out, opposition parties in India start levelling allegations about the accuracy of EVMs. Minutes before the Delhi assembly elections of 2020, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh accused that the EVMs can be tampered with to get desired results out of elections. In 2021, when the first phase of Assembly elections in Bengal was about to start, the TMC raised the EVM issue claiming that the votes are being automatically transferred to the BJP.
It is amply clear by now that the ‘Tempering of EVM’ toolkit continues to repeat itself every time an opposition party looms over the fate of losing elections. When a similar petition was raised before the SC demanding 100% VVPAT verification in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the court dismissed it saying, “We won’t entertain such a plea over and over again. Can’t come in the way of people electing their representatives. Let country elect its government.”
It is notable here that even after repeated allegations and an open challenge thrown by the Election Commission of India to prove how the EVMs can be hacked, not a single opposition party has ever been able to provide a shred of actual evidence to support their claims.
