The Supreme Court on April 3 said it would hear next week a plea by an NGO seeking cross-verification of the votes cast in electronic voting machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
Earlier this week, the top court issued a notice to the Election Commission on a petition calling for the comprehensive counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips during elections.
The reliability of VVPAT systems has been questioned for a while. Many critics have cited instances of malfunctioning printers, paper jams, and discrepancies between electronic and paper records.
What is VVPAT?
VVPAT, which was introduced for the time in India in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, is a ballot-less vote verification system connected with the EVM. When a voter casts their vote using an EVM, the VVPAT system generates a paper slip containing the name and symbol of the candidate for whom the vote was cast. The paper slip can be viewed by the voter. This allows the individual to verify whether the vote was cast correctly on the EVM.
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There is a transparent window for the voter to see the printed slip. There is a transparent window for the voter to see the printed slip. The slip is securely placed inside a sealed compartment of the machine. It can be accessed in case of any disputes.
The petition
The petition was filed by Karnataka-based activist Arun Kumar Agrawal through advocate Neha Rathi. According to the petitioner, the government allocated Rs 5,000 crore for acquiring 24 lakh VVPATs but only 20,000 VVPAT slips are verified. Additionally, the petitioner noted concerns regarding both VVPATs and EVMs, particularly the significant number of discrepancies between the vote counts of EVMs and VVPATs in the past.
This is not the first time that the matter has reached the top court. On April 8, 2019, the Supreme Court directed the electoral commission to raise the number of EVMs subjected to VVPAT physical verification from one to five per assembly segment in a Lok Sabha constituency.
What is INDIA bloc demanding?
The Congress hailed the SC notice as an “important first step". It said the matter should be decided before the Lok Sabha elections begin. Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc have been demanding VVPATs counting to increase public confidence in EVMs and to ensure transparency of the electoral process. The opposition alleged that the poll panel had refused to meet a delegation from INDIA bloc on this issue.
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