Supreme Court Dismisses Trinamool Congress Leader's Plea For 100% VVPAT Verification

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Trinamool Congress Leader Gopal Seth seeking 100% verification of votes with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in Electronic Voting Machines.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said that the Court did not want to interfere in the middle of the election process.

Seth approached the Supreme Court challenging the refusal of the Calcutta High Court to entertain his plea.

Advocate Pjiush Roy, appearing for Seth, argued before the bench that "free and fair election was a right of the people".

When the CJI asked the petitioner if any representation has been made to the Election Commission of India, he answered in the affirmative and added that the ECI had appreciated the suggestion.

The bench reiterated that it was not inclined to interfere with the election process and dismissed the petition.

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 directed the Election Commission to increase the VVPAT physical verification from 1 to 5 EVMs in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.