Supreme Court junks plea on VVPAT matching with EVM?
The Supreme Court of India has rejected a plea filed by 21 opposition parties to direct the Election Commission of India to match at least 50 percent of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with EVM results during the counting of votes in the upcoming general elections. The Court held that the plea was premature since the election process has not yet begun. The Court also noted that the Election Commission is already taking steps to ensure the accuracy of the voting process and that the plea was an attempt to “pre-judge” the Election Commission’s decision. The Court further noted that any attempt to tamper or manipulate the EVM votes would be visible from the VVPAT slips and therefore, the Election Commission could take steps to verify the EVM results if required.