HC rejects AAP plea on VVPATs

The Delhi high court on Friday rejected the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP’s) plea for using paper trail electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the municipal polls scheduled for April 23.

Justice A.K. Pathak dismissed the petition, filed by AAP candidate Mohd Tahir Hussain, who is contesting in the MCD polls from east Delhi, saying no such direction can be issued at the “eleventh hour” as it could amount to “stalling the elections”.

During the arguments, the court had asked the state election commission (SEC) of Delhi why it did not opt for new generation paper trail EVMs in view of the Supreme Court’s observation in Subramanian Swamy’s case that such machines should be brought into use in a phased manner.

The SEC, represented by advocate Sumeet Pushkarna, had opposed the plea arguing that huge expenditure was required to acquire the machines and that procurement of about 13,000 VVPATs was being considered.

VVPAT or voter-verified paper audit trail is a machine attached to Generation 2 or 3 EVMs which shows in whose favour a vote has been cast when a voter presses a button of his/her choice on the voting machine.

The petitioners had sought directions to the Delhi SEC and the Election Commission of India to use VVPAT enabled Generation 2 or 3 EVMs in the MCD polls.

The SEC had opposed the plea also on the ground that the aspersions raised by the AAP on the use of the older model-one EVMs in the MCD polls sends a wrong message to the voters.

It also contended that the VVPATs couldn’t be procured and used at such short notice as the poll results are to be declared on April 26 and a new house of MCD has to be put in place by April 30.