New Delhi:

The Supreme Court will today pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections. 

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta had reserved the judgment on the petitions on April 18 after two days of hearing.

During the hearing, which spanned over nearly two days, the bench had extensively interacted with an official from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to understand the functioning of EVMs.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the poll panel, had told the court that EVMs are standalone machines and cannot be tampered with, but the possibility of human error cannot be ruled out.

Underscoring that the electoral process has to have sanctity, Justice Datta told Mr Singh, “You have to allay the apprehensions, both in the court and outside the court. Let nobody have the apprehension that something which is expected is not being done.”

Following the Election Commission’s submissions, the Supreme Court told the petitioners that over suspicion of everything is a problem.

“Everything cannot be suspected. You cannot be critical of everything. If they (the ECI) have done something good, you have to appreciate it. You don’t have to be critical of everything,” the bench told the counsel of one of the petitioners.

In an earlier hearing on April 16, The bench expressed reservations about the manual counting process, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”.

The VVPAT – Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail – enables a voter to see if the vote was cast properly and went to the candidate he/she supports. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened if there is a dispute.

Currently, VVPAT slips of five randomly selected EVMs in every Assembly segment are verified.

Amid the Opposition’s questions and apprehensions regarding the EVM system of voting, the petitions call for cross-verification of every vote.

The petitions have been filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal. Mr Agarwal has sought the counting of all VVPAT slips. The ADR’s petition seeks the court’s direction to the Election Commission and the Centre to ensure that voters are able to verify through VVPATs that their vote has been “counted as recorded”.

New Delhi:

There has to be sanctity in the electoral process, the Supreme Court told the Election Commission of India today, asking the poll body to explain in detail the steps followed to ensure free and fair polls. “This is (an) electoral process. There has to be sanctity. Let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done,” the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta said.

The court is hearing petitions seeking cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with paper slips generated through the VVPAT system. Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, the poll body’s counsel, and poll officials are in court to respond to the questions.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, Advocate Nizam Pasha said a voter should be allowed to take the VVPAT slip after he votes and deposit it in a ballot box. When Justice Khanna asked if such a process won’t affect the voter’s privacy, Mr Pasha replied, “Voter privacy cannot be used to defeat voter’s rights.”

Advocate Prashant Bhushan then said that the light on the VVPAT machine should remain on at all times — it now stays on for seven seconds. “One possible solution is if they can’t change glass at this stage, at least the light should remain on at all times, so I can see the slip cutting and falling. No privacy will be compromised.”

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, also appearing for petitioners, said there should be a separate audit to add greater credibility to the counting process.

Mr Bhushan cited a report on mock poll results in Kerala, where extra votes were recorded for the BJP. The court asked Mr Singh to explain this.

In its explanation of the voting process, the poll body said the EVM’s control unit commands the VVPAT unit to print its paper slip. This slip is visible to the voter for seven seconds before it falls into a sealed box, Mr Singh said. The machines are checked before polling in the presence of engineers, it added.

When the court asked if there was any software in the VVPAT printer, the poll body replied in the negative. “There is a 4 megabyte flash memory in every PAT which stores symbols. The returning officer prepares electronic ballot, which is loaded into the symbol loading unit. It will give a serial number, name of the candidate and symbol. Nothing is preloaded. It’s not data, it’s image format.” 

When the court asked how many Symbol Loading Units are created for the polling, a poll body official replied, “Normally one in a constituency. It’s in custody of Returning Officer till conclusion of poll.” The court then asked if this unit is sealed to ensure no tampering, the Election Commission replied that no such process is currently in place.

The Election Commission told the court that all voting machines pass through the mock poll process. “Candidates are allowed to pick up randomly 5 per cent machines. The process is repeated on poll day. VVPAT slips are taken out, counted and matched. All machines have different kind of paper seals. At the time when a machine arrives for counting, seal number can be checked,” an official said.

When the court asked how a voter can check if his/her vote has been cast, the official replied that the poll body gives demonstrations and runs awareness programmes for this. The Election Commission also said that voting machines get allocated to constituencies randomly. “No spurious unit can be connected (to them). They will only recognise sister units.”

The Election Commission told the court that the voting machines run on firmware and the program cannot be changed. The machines are kept in strongrooms that are locked in presence of representatives of political parties. 

What Is VVPAT and What Is The Case

The VVPAT — Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail — enables a voter to see if the vote was cast properly and went to the candidate he/she supports. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened if there is a dispute. Currently, VVPAT slips of five randomly selected EVMs in every Assembly segment are verified. Amid the Opposition’s questions and apprehensions regarding the EVM system of voting, the petitions call for cross-verification of every vote.

New Delhi:

In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Election Commission and the Centre on a plea seeking a complete count of VVPAT slips in polls as opposed to the current practice of verification of only five randomly selected EVMs through VVPAT paper slips.

The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is an independent vote verification system which permits an elector to see whether his vote was cast correctly.

The VVPAT generates a paper slip which can be viewed by the voter and the paper slip is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened in case of a dispute.

The top court, on April 8, 2019, had ordered the poll panel to increase the number of EVMs that undergo VVPAT physical verification from one to five per assembly segment in a parliamentary constituency.

A bench comprising justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta took note of the submissions of lawyers representing activist Arun Kumar Agrawal seeking a complete count of VVPAT slips in elections as opposed to the verification of only five randomly selected EVMs through VVPAT paper slips.

It issued notices to the Election Commission (EC) and the central government on the plea which may be listed for hearing on May 17.

Senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Neha Rathi appeared for Agrawal.

The plea assailed the EC’s guideline that mandates that VVPAT verification shall be done sequentially, one after the other.

The plea said if simultaneous verification is done and more officers are deployed for counting in each assembly constituency, then complete VVPAT verification can be done in a matter of five-six hours.

The government has spent nearly Rs 5,000 crore on the purchase of nearly 24 lakh VVPATs but presently, VVPAT slips of only approximately 20,000 VVPATs are verified, it said.

Given that many questions are being raised by experts with regard to VVPATs and EVMs and the fact that a large number of discrepancies between EVM and VVPAT vote count have been reported in the past, it is imperative that all VVPAT slips are counted and a voter is given an opportunity to properly verify that his vote as cast in the ballot is also counted by allowing him to physically drop his/her VVPAT slip in the ballot box, the plea said.

The top court issued the notice and tagged it with pending matters on the issue. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)