The Supreme Court on April 1 issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition seeking the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections, instead of verifying only five randomly selected Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the poll body and tagged the plea filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Aggarwal with a similar petition filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), seeking similar reliefs. The Supreme Court has issued notices to both the ECI and the Central government regarding the plea, which is expected to be heard on May 17.
The VVPAT generates a paper slip that displays the voter’s chosen candidate’s name or symbol. This paper slip is visible to the voter through a transparent window for a few seconds, allowing them to verify their vote. The paper slip is then stored in a sealed container attached to the EVM and can be used as a physical record for verification in case of any dispute regarding the election results. The Supreme Court in its judgment in Subramanian Swamy versus ECI, 2013, had held that it was imperative that elections held through EVMs ought to implement a mechanism of voter verifiable paper audit trails so that the voter can satisfy himself that his vote was accurately recorded.
It is good that the Supreme Court is seized of the matter. Free and fair elections are the prime requisite for a healthy democracy. Many doubts have been raised over EVMs in the past ten years in various fora. If there are nagging doubts in the public mind, it’s important to remove them. The Election Commission of India however opines that counting all VVPATs slips manually would be labour and time-intensive and will also be prone to ‘human error’ and ‘mischief’ and this will be as going back to the paper ballot system. However, it must be remembered that election is about the interest of the masses, democracy, and the Constitution.
In response to the plea submitted by the opposition parties that at least 50 per cent of all EVMs should undergo VVPAT verification, the Supreme Court on April 8, 2019 decided to increase the number of EVMs subject to VVPAT verification from one to five per assembly segment. In May 2019, the apex court dismissed another plea filed by a group of technocrats who advocated for VVPAT verification for all EVMs. But the Supreme Court’s notice on April 1 is a big step forward to strengthen the democratic process to ensure a free and fair election without leaving any doubts in the people’s minds and also will help restore public confidence as the country goes for the Lok Sabha elections this month onwards.
