Supreme Court Upholds Decision Against Full EVM-VVPAT Verification

The Supreme Court has rejected a petition requesting a review for 100% cross-verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. Citing no errors apparent in the previous judgment, the court dismissed the plea citing existing measures for accurate count.

In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking a review of its earlier decision that rejected a plea for 100 percent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, found no compelling ground for reviewing the decision from April 26.

"We have carefully perused the review petition, along with the supporting grounds. No case for the review of the April 26, 2024, judgement is made out," stated the bench in its order dated July 25. The petition, filed by Arun Kumar Agarwal, alleged apparent errors and mistakes in the judgement.

The review petition contended that a full verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips would not lead to unreasonable delays or require double the manpower. Existing CCTV surveillance in counting halls would prevent any manipulation or mischief. The petitioner argued that EVMs do not allow voters to verify their votes accurately and are vulnerable to insider tampering.

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled against reverting to a paper ballot system and dismissed requests for cross-verification by voters. The petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Arun Kumar Agarwal, sought greater EVM data verification against VVPAT records.

(With inputs from agencies.)