SC agrees to hear review plea by 21 Oppn leaders on matching VVPAT slips with EVMs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday agreed to hear next week a review plea filed by 21 Opposition leaders seeking further increase in random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs in the ongoing general elections.

The apex court had on April 8 directed the Election Commission to increase random matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in five polling booths per assembly segment from one booth.

The top court, however, had not agreed to the demand of 21 Opposition leaders for counting of at least 50 percent of VVPAT slips with EVMs in every assembly segment.

Opposition leaders led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had sought the review of the apex court's order, saying the "increase from 1 to 5 is not a reasonable number and does not lead to satisfaction desired by this court".

The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for petitioners, told the bench that the review plea be listed for hearing next week.

The bench accepted Singhvi's submission and said the matter will be heard next week. The plea said: The petitioners submit that the aforesaid increase to a mere 2 per cent is not sufficient and will not make any substantial difference to the situation that existed prior to the passing of the impugned order.

Therefore, even though the petitioners have succeeded on the merits of their contention, their success does not resolve their grievance or cause any meaningful change to the situation that they were originally aggrieved of.

Referring to earlier observations of the apex court, it had said that the 2 per cent increase in random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs would not achieve the purpose of raising "public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process".

The plea has opposed the Election Commission (EC) argument, which was accepted by the court, that as the elections were nearby and hence it would not be viable to increase the number of random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs.

"It is submitted that, once this court agrees that the number of EVMs that should be subjected to VVPAT verification should be increased to a 'reasonable number', not increasing the same to a number which is 'reasonable' because it may not be 'viable' to do so renders the entire exercise otiose and futile," the plea has said.

Consequently, the 'viable number' must also necessarily be reasonable, it had said, alleging that at many booths in Andhra Pradesh the VVPAT machines were not working properly.