In a significant ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition seeking reconsideration of its earlier judgment, which denied the demand for 100 percent verification of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes with their corresponding Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, found no substantial ground to review the court’s April 26 judgment.
The petitioner had argued for a review of the April 26 decision, which had upheld the current practice of randomly verifying VVPAT slips from five polling stations in each Assembly constituency. The petitioners contended that full verification was essential to ensure the integrity and transparency of the electoral process. However, the Supreme Court maintained that the existing procedure was sufficient and met the requirements for free and fair elections.
In its April 26 judgment, the apex court also rejected the petitioners’ plea to revert to the paper ballot voting system. This verdict was part of a series of petitions aiming to enable voters to cross-verify the votes they cast as recorded in the EVMs with VVPAT slips.
Despite the petitioners’ persistent efforts, the Supreme Court’s stance underscores its confidence in the current verification process’s adequacy. The ruling reinforces the existing electoral procedures, which the court deems compliant with the standards of free and fair elections in India.
As this decision reverberates through the political landscape, questions about the sufficiency of the current EVM verification system persist. The court’s rejection of the review petition marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over the reliability and transparency of India’s electoral processes.