The Supreme Court of India will issue directions on Wednesday regarding petitions seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). VVPAT is an independent system for verifying votes. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta is scheduled to pronounce the directions on the plea in which the apex court reserved the order on April 18.
NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR), one of the petitioners, has sought a 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. The NGO contends that this change undermines the transparency and verifiability of the voting process. The court’s directions are expected to have significant implications for the use of EVMs in future elections.
