Supreme Court Rejects Plea of 21 Opposition Parties of 25% EVM Paper Trail Count

Guwahati: The Supreme Court rejected a plea today by 21 opposition parties that asked for counting of at least 25% EVM paper trail machines instead of only five in every assembly segment and this was the second time that the court turned down their plea.

A bench comprises of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that they are not inclined to modify their order. The Election Commission had argued that results of the Lok Sabha elections could be delayed by five days during the hearing on April 8 if 50 percent of VVPAT machines in every assembly segment were counted.

The top court today said the election body to increase the number of VVPAT machines from one to just five, so the delay will be marginal.

Senior advocate AM Singhvi who has appeared for the petitioners today told the Supreme Court that increasing random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to only five polling booths per assembly segment amounted to tallying just 2% of total VVPAT machines while they were asking for 25%.

The 21 opposition parties made a request to increase counting of VVPAT machines and the request comes amid constant fights among parties in election season. The election commission has used the VVPATs for the first time in any Lok Sabha election and it has been used in some parliamentary and assembly by-polls till now.

The top court's earlier order meant that five polling stations, instead of one will be picked for the random matching of slips. The polling station where VVPAT slips are matched with vote machine results is decided by a draw of lots in the presence of candidates after votes are cast.

According to the Indian Statistical Institute, a sample survey of 479 assembly segments would generate 99.99 percent accuracy as said by the election commission. The poll body had also flagged infrastructure and workforce constraints and it said that it needs a minimum team of three officers to count VVPATs.

Till date, the poll body has matched VVPAT slips of 4,125 EVMs under the one EVM per assembly segment guideline. The election commission will have to count the VVPAT slips of five times as per the order of the Supreme Court as many machines in each constituency or that of 20,625 EVMs.

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