Petitions seeking cross-verification of votes polled on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by matching them with VVPAT paper slips will be heard by the Supreme Court today. This comes days ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the first phase of which begins on Friday.
The VVPAT — Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail — enables a voter to see if the vote was cast properly and went to the candidate he/she supports. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened if there is a dispute. Amid the Opposition’s questions and apprehensions regarding the EVM system of voting, the petitions call for cross-verification of every vote.
Under the current system, VVPAT paper slips of five randomly-selected EVMs in each assembly constituency or each assembly segment in a parliamentary constituency are physically verified.
The petitions have been filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal. Mr Agarwal has sought the counting of all VVPAT slips. On April 1, the court had sought replies from the Election Commission of India and the Centre on his petition.
The ADR’s petition seeks the court’s direction to the Election Commission and the Centre to ensure that voters are able to verify through VVPATs that their vote has been “counted as recorded”. The petition says that the requirement of voters verifying that their votes have been “recorded as cast” is somewhat met when the VVPAT slip is displayed for about seven seconds after pressing the button on the EVM through a transparent window.
“However, there is a complete vacuum in law as the ECI has provided no procedure for the voter to verify that her vote has been ‘counted as recorded’ which is an indispensable part of voter verifiability. The failure of the ECI to provide for the same is in the teeth of purport and object of the directions issued by this Court in… Subramanian Swamy versus Election Commission of India (2013 verdict),” the plea said.
The matter first came up in 2009 when BJP leader Subramanian Swamy approached the Delhi High Court after his party’s defeat in the general election. Mr Swamy sought directions to incorporate a system of paper trail in EVMs as a proof that a voter’s vote for a particular candidate has been correctly recorded. The high court rejected the petition and Mr Swamy approached the Supreme Court. In its 2013 judgment, the Supreme Court said it is “satisfied that the ‘paper trail’ is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections”.
“The confidence of the voters in the EVMs can be achieved only with the introduction of the ‘paper trail’. EVMs with VVPAT system ensure the accuracy of the voting system. With an intent to have fullest transparency in the system and to restore the confidence of the voters, it is necessary to set up EVMs with VVPAT system because vote is nothing but an act of expression which has immense importance in democratic system,” it said.
In its response to petitions seeking VVPAT verification of all votes, the poll body has pointed to manpower and infrastructure challenges and argued that such a step would delay the counting process.
