SC refuses to urgently hear plea for VVPAT verification before vote counting

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to urgently consider the plea seeking verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) before the counting of votes instead of verifying it at the end of counting.

A bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, refused to list the matter for tomorrow for hearing, saying that it doesn’t want to issue any direction at the last minute, with regard to counting of votes in Assembly polls in five states. “Let counting go on as per established practice, procedures and law,” said the bench.

The decision of the bench came as in the afternoon senior advocate Maninder Singh appearing for the Election Commission of India told the bench that it is following the judgment in relation to the VVPAT verification. The bench said it would list the matter before an appropriate bench only after the counting process is over for Assembly polls and declined to urgently list tomorrow the PIL filed by a social activist Rakesh Kumar.

In the morning when senior counsel Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing, the bench agreed to hear it on Wednesday. The bench then asked Election Commission to be present tomorrow through its counsel.

“Inform the Election Commission of India to be present tomorrow. Let us see what can be done,” said the CJI. Advocate Arora, mentioning the matter for urgent hearing, said that verification of VVPAT is currently being done after the counting of votes is over, by that time all election agents have left so there is no transparency. “If verification is done after counting is over then there is no use. Verification should be first when there are agents, parties, candidates, etc,” she added.

To this, the CJI said that there are 2019 guidelines in this regard in which the top court had directed that the number of EVMs with respect to which VVPAT paper trail is verified be raised from one EVM to five EVMs per Assembly Segment/ Assembly Constituency. Arora replied that currently verification is done only with respect to one booth per polling station.

The CJI then asked Arora why the court was being approached when the counting is on 10 March. “Last minute, if you are asking, how can we help you? Day after tomorrow is counting. Even if we hear this tomorrow, can we issue such a direction to all states?” asked CJI Ramana. Counting of votes for the Assembly elections in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab and Goa will be held on 10 March.