SC issues notice to ECI on Oppn plea for matching EVM results with VVPATs

New Delhi [India], Mar 15 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a plea of 21 Opposition parties seeking a direction that 50 per cent Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results be matched and cross-checked with VVPATs before the declaration of the outcome in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also asked the ECI to depute a senior officer to assist the court and posted the matter for the next hearing next to March 25.
The petition has also challenged the decision of ECI to verify the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) of only one randomly selected booth of a constituency.
The petitioners have said that this will account only for 0.44% of the votes polled.
This guideline defeats the entire purpose of the VVPAT and makes the same "ornamental" without actual substance, according to the petitioners.
The Opposition parties had earlier alleged faulty working of EVMs during state elections.
On February 1, Opposition parties had organised a ‘Save the Nation, Save the Democracy’ meeting and decided to approach the ECI over the issue of alleged tampering of EVMs.
Later, a delegation of the parties led by Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also visited the ECI, seeking mandatory count of half of the votes of all EVMs through VVPAT.
The move was coordinated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who was joined by several other leaders in filing the petition.
The other leaders include Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Derek O'Brien, MK Stalin and Farooq Abdullah. (ANI)