Supreme Court notice to EC on Oppn plea for VVPAT scrutiny

21 OPPOSITION PARTIES SOUGHT RANDOM VERIFICATION OF AT LEAST 50% EVMS USING VVPAT IN EACH ASSEMBLY SEGMENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked the Election Commission (EC) on Friday to respond to a petition filed by leaders of 21 Opposition parties seeking random verification of at least half the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) using the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in each Assembly segment or assembly constituency.

The leaders have also asked the court to quash the commission’s notification that provides for a paper audit trail — a safeguard was introduced because of the suspicions of some Opposition parties that EVMS were susceptible to tampering — in only one randomly selected polling station in an assembly constituency. While issuing the notice to the EC, a bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said it would hear the matter on March 25 — roughly two weeks before the general elections kick off on April 11. The court gave the petitioners the liberty of serving the notice to the EC through its secretary and directed the presence of an officer to assist the SC on the next date of hearing. Senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the petitioners, including Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Union minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’brien, and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav.