SC dismisses PIL seeking 100% matching of VVPAT slips with EVM count
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a PIL seeking 100 per cent matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) vote count to ensure transparency in the polling process.
A three-judge bench comprising of Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was hearing a petition filed by a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, Gopal Seth.
"We are not going to interfere in the middle of the election process," Chief Justice S A Bobde said, dismissing the PIL.
.The bench also asked Seth's counsel whether any representation was made to the Election Commission of India (EC) in this regard.
"Yes. They (EC) had appreciated our representation," the counsel said, adding that ensuring the free and fair election is a right of all citizens.
The counsel also pointed out that Seth had earlier approached the Calcutta High Court, which had said that the SC had already ruled on this in the past.
Earlier in April 2018, the Supreme Court has had rejected a plea by leaders of 21 political parties to subject 50 per cent of the EVMs to random verification using their Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)
To date, only one EVM per Assembly segment is to be verified with the paper trail.