New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Election Commission to count the paper slips of five electronic voting machines in every Assembly segment, instead of limiting it to just one EVM, for the sake of “satisfaction of the electorate.”
Noting that the court was not at all doubting the system of EVMs or the EVM results, the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said an increased verification of the EVM results with the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips “would be of greater satisfaction, not only for the petitioner political parties but also for the entire electorate.
The direction of the Bench, which also included Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, came on a plea by leaders of 21 opposition parties to match 50% of the EVM results with the paper slips in each Assembly segment, as they were just not satisfied with matching of less than 0.44% of the EVMs in the country.
In an affidavit on Saturday, they had said that they have no problem if enhanced matching with the paper slips means a delay of five or six days, as contended by the Election Commission. The Congress reacted sharply to the court decision, expressing dissatisfaction and urging it to reconsider its directive to the Election Commission.
“We have demanded the verification of 50 per cent VVPAT slips. The order of the Supreme Court is not reasonable. If VVPAT slips are not verified, what is the point in spending Rs 18 crore to attach them to every EVM in the country?” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala asked.
The Election Commission, however, accepted the court direction, saying it will “make all-out efforts to operationalise and implement the directions of the court with immediate effect.” Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that at least 33% of the votes, if not 50%, should be verified as otherwise it will be “ornamental and illusory” to count less than 1%.
Moreover, there could be also tampering of EVMs in some areas, he said. The court did not accept his submission but said matching the results of five EVMs in each Assembly segment will be suffice, as it would neither require additional manpower, as stated by the Election Commission, nor will it delay the election results.
It said: “Our endeavour is to find a viable number of machines keeping in mind the infrastructure and manpower difficulties pointed out by the Election Commission.” The court also noted that the issue before it was “to maintain the purity of the electoral process and ensure the foolproof result of the mandate expressed by the people in the upcoming general elections.”
On its own the Election Commission had decided to match EVM votes of one polling station in each Assembly segment that means counting paper slips of the VVPAT machines attached to 4125 EVMs. The Court”s order means votes cast in about 20,625 EVMs will be matched.
CONGRESS WANTS A REVIEWThe
Congress on Monday urged the Supreme Court to review its decision on matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs, saying it is not satisfied with the counting being held in only five booths in each assembly segment. Party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that as a citizen of India he was concerned why Rs 18,000 crore were spent on VVPATs if they were not to be used in elections.
