Supreme Court To Hear Pleas Seeking 100% EVM-VVPAT Tally After 2 Weeks

On a mentioning by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, the Supreme Court today said that the matter pertaining to Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data cross-checking against voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) records will be taken up after 2 weeks.

The matter was mentioned before Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who is heading a Special Bench today alongwith Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Bela M Trivedi. In view of the same, Sibal had requested that the matter may be heard next week on Tuesday. The petitions were otherwise supposed to come up today but were not listed as Justice Khanna was heading a Special Bench.

Adding to Sibal's request, Sr Adv Gopal Sankarayanarayan pointed out that the Lok Sabha elections were nearing.

In response, Justice Khanna said that the Court was aware and had thought that the hearing could be fastened. However, the matter may be struck out from the list next week because of the roster now. At last, the judge said that in the manner cases are being listed, it would come next to next week.

During the hearing, Justice Khanna could also be heard saying to Advocate on Record Prashant Bhushan, "how much time will it take to decide one way or the other? I thought it could be fastened, but anyway". The judge reiterated that the matter would come up next to next week and sufficient time would be given to the counsel.

For a detailed report on earlier proceedings, click here.

It is worthwhile to mention that two days ago, a bench led by Justice BR Gavai issued notice on another petition seeking 100% verification of VVPAT slips.

The petitioners, including NGO-Association for Democratic Reforms, pray that all VVPATs be verified, instead of the current practice of ECI to randomly verify 5 EVMs per assembly segment. The petitioners also seek measures to ensure that votes are "recorded as cast" and "counted as recorded".

Case Title: Association of Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India & Anr. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 434 of 2023