New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday took time from the Supreme Court till 10.30 AM on Friday to file its affidavit on matching more EVM results with the paper trail.
Its counsel mentioned before rising of the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that the affidavit is under preparation and it will be definitely filed on Friday before the Court assembles. The court granted permission since the PIL of 21 opposition parties is to come up only on Monday.
In the last hearing on March 25, the Court had opined that the EC should have no difficulty in increasing physical verification of the electronic votes on the EVMs (electronic voting machines) with the paper slips from the attached VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines and asked its deputy secretary to state on affidavit how far the EC can go in this regard.
The Court had noted that the opposition parties have their own apprehensions about veracity of the EVM results since they could be manipulated and they knocked at its door since the EC did not respond to their suggestion.
The PIL seeks counting of 50% paper slips before declaration of results based on the EVM data. VVPAT machines, attached to EVMs, display the name of the candidate and his/her symbol on a piece of paper after a vote is cast.
The voter can see the paper through a glass display for seven seconds before it drops into a sealed container. While announcing the schedule of this summer”s general elections, the EC announced that VVPATs will be used in all polling stations along with EVMs but the votes will be tallied in only one booth in each constituency.
