New Delhi: The Supreme Court will give its verdict today i.e. on Friday on the petition regarding matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the votes cast through EVM i.e. Electronic Voting Machine. Voting for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections is going on and in the meantime today the Supreme Court will decide with its decision whether the VVPAT slips will be matched with the EVM votes when the Lok Sabha elections are counted on June 4 or not. . It is important to mention here that many organizations have filed petitions demanding matching of EVM and VVPAT slips.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna in the Supreme Court will on Friday give its verdict on petitions seeking mandatory cross-verification of votes cast in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. Will give the verdict. Justice Dipankar Dutta is also included in this bench. Earlier on Wednesday, the court had called an official of the Election Commission of India to clarify some technical aspects related to the functioning of EVMs.
Last week, the bench had reserved its decision on several public interest litigations (PILs) in this matter. She had said that official acts are generally considered valid under the Indian Evidence Act and everything done by the Election Commission cannot be doubted. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the central government’s second-highest lawmaker, had criticized the petitioners for filing PILs time and again on the eve of elections, saying the voter’s democratic choice was being turned into a joke. He said that the apex court has already rejected petitions seeking similar relief on this issue.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Dutta had asked an Election Commission official four questions regarding the functioning of the EVM, which also included the question whether the ‘microcontroller’ installed in the EVM can be reprogrammed. Yes or No.’ Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Nitish Kumar Vyas had earlier given a presentation in the court about the working of EVMs. The bench had said that it needed clarification on certain aspects as there was some confusion regarding the answers given by the Commission on ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQs) regarding EVMs.
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Tags: Supreme Court, VVPAT
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 26, 2024, 07:22 IST