Supreme Court dismisses plea seeking 100 percent counting of VVPAT slips in addition to EVMs

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking 100 percent counting of VVPAT slips in elections, in addition to counting of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the control unit.

The Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice KV Viswanathan rejected the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Hans Raj Jain on the grounds that it has already examined these issues.

Appearing in person, Jain submitted that he had given a representation before the Election Commission of India, but the ECI was yet to respond.

Jain then filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the ECI to use an appropriate prototype of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system in the future, in which the printer was kept open and the printed ballot, which got cut and fell out of the printer, was subject to verification by the voter, before providing the same to a presiding officer before leaving the polling station.

Jain further sought directions to the ECI to allow a representation submitted by him on April 15, 2024.

He said the High Court rejected his plea, after which he moved the Apex Court. Jain further contended that the petition pertained to the issue of counting.

The Bench, however, dismissed the SLP.

Earlier, the Apex Court had rejected similar pleas seeking 100 percent cross-verification of EVM data with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records, observing that EVMs were simple, secure, and user-friendly.