Supreme Court rejects PIL on counting of VVPAT slips of all EVMs

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking counting of VVPAT slips of all EVMs while rebuking NGO ‘Tech4All’ for making a “mockery of democracy” by moving the court despite a clear ruling by the apex court directing counting of VVPAT slips of five EVMs per assembly segment.
This decision by a vacation bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah assumes significance as there has been renewed efforts by opposition parties led by Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu to seek counting of VVPAT slips in 50% of EVMs despite failing to convince the SC to entertain their petition seeking review of the April 8 judgment directing counting of VVPAT slips of five EVMs per assembly segment. The Election Commission had earlier decided to count paper slips of only one EVM per assembly segment.
The PIL by the Chennai-based NGO expressed concern over the dependability of VVPAT in recording votes and said there were reports of malfunctioning of an “unprecedented number of EVMs during the current Lok Sabha elections”.
However, the NGO’s petition only mentioned errors in the machines in Odisha and Goa. “...The EVMs should be replaced by Optical Ballot Scan machine which upholds the tangible secret ballot system, verifiable even by a common man,” it added. It criticised the NGO for moving a PIL knowing well that a three-judge bench headed by CJI Gogoi had given a judgment on April 8 and it was unethical to move such a petition when the polls were over.