Days after reserving its verdict in the case on April 18, a 2-judge Supreme Court bench is likely to pronounce its orders on Wednesday on pleas demanding a complete cross-verification of votes cast using Electronic Voter Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, had told the petitioners during the hearing that they (petitioners) must not “suspect the efficacy of EVMs, and appreciate if the Election Commission of India (ECI) does good work.” The bench also categorically refused to order the use of ballot papers to conduct elections, saying that the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”. One of the petitioners, an NGO called ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR), had sought reversal of the poll panel’s 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds. ADR was also among the petitioners in the electoral bonds case. In the current case, the NGO sought matching the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably “recorded as cast” and to ensure the voter is able to verify through VVPAT slip that his vote, as recorded on the paper slip, has been “counted as recorded”.
Supreme Court to Pronounce Orders on EVM Cross-Verification Pleas on Wednesday
