EVM-VVPAT case: Supreme Court likely to announce verdict today

Guwahati: The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections on Wednesday.

A Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna had reserved the case for judgment on April 18.

According to reports, the petitioners which includes the Association for Democratic Reforms, had argued that 97 crore registered voters in the country had a right to a more transparent electoral system, with or without EVMs.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for the petitioners, had highlighted the fundamental right of the voter to confirm that his vote has been cast right.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on the other hand had countered that EVMs were “perfect”.

The Bench had earlier told the petitioners that “it was not good to be over-suspicious about everything”.

Currently, cross-verification of EVM-VVPAT happens only in five randomly selected polling booths in a constituency.