SC junks PIL seeking 100% verification of VVPAT slips

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a PIL which sought 100 per cent verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes on May 23 for the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

The plea was been filed by Tech for All, a Chennai-based organisation.

A vacation bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, dismissed the plea observing that a larger bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had already conducted a detailed hearing in the matter and passed an order.

The court pulled up the petitioner asking why had his plea been brought before a vacation bench when the CJI had already dealt with the matter. “This is nonsense. We cannot override the CJI’s order….The petition is taken on board. Dismissed,” said Justice Arun Mishra.

On April 8, an apex court bench headed by the CJI, directed the Election Commission (EC) to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one to five machines at polling booths per Assembly segment in the general elections.

The court observed that the increase in the number would provide greater satisfaction to the electorate as well as the political parties.

On May 7, the top court dismissed a petition filed by 21 Opposition parties to review its April judgment.

Published on: May 21, 2019 at 13:16 IST

IANS