Kriti Agrawal
On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Gopal Seth, an All-India Trinamool Congress leader from Bongaon, seeking 100% matching of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPAT) trail with the Electric Voting Machines (EVM) vote count to ensure clarity in election results.
The bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Ramasubramanian said that, “We will not intervene in the election process,”
The Assembly election process is ongoing in five states, including West Bengal, and the votes for all seats will be counted on 2nd May.
The bench questioned the counsel representing petitioner Gopal Seth if they had made any representations to the Election Commission (EC) on this matter.
The Counsel said, “Yes, Election Commission (EC) appreciated our representation, said the lawyer, adding that free and fair elections are a people’s right.”
He said that the petitioner had previously approached the Calcutta High Court on this matter.
The counsel argued that the high court had stated that the apex court had previously issued an order on this.
The bench in its order said “The Special Leave Petition (SLP) has been denied as a result of the above, all pending interlocutory applications are dismissed”
The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission (EC) in April 2019 to increase random matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPAT) slips with Electric Voting Machines (EVMs) to five polling booths per assembly segment in the Lok Sabha polls, stating that it would provide greater satisfaction not only to political parties but to the entire electorate.
Previously, the Election Commission (EC) used a system of random Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPAT) slip counting in one polling booth per assembly segment of a Parliamentary or Assembly constituency.
In 2019, the top court observed that it had no doubts about the fairness and integrity of the existing electoral process, saying, “we are certain that the system ensures accurate electoral results.”
