SC dismisses plea for 100% manual counting of VVPAT slips during polls

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to the Election Commission for a 100 per cent manual counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in addition to electronic counting, saying the issue couldn’t be agitated again and again.

“We do not find any good ground to interfere with the impugned judgment (of the Delhi High Court). The special leave petition is dismissed,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna told petitioner Hans Raj Jain.

Jain had challenged the August 12, 2024 judgment of the Delhi High Court which had dismissed his plea, citing the top court’s verdict on the issue.

Giving the thumbs up to the EVM system in the midst of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bench had in its April 26, 2024 verdict said, “EVMs offer significant advantages. They have effectively eliminated booth capturing by restricting the rate of vote casting to 4 votes per minute, thereby prolonging the time needed and thus check insertion of bogus votes. EVMs have eliminated invalid votes, which were a major issue with paper ballots and had often sparked disputes during the counting process. Furthermore, EVMs reduce paper usage and alleviate logistical challenges. Finally, they provide administrative convenience by expediting the counting process and minimizing errors.”

“…keeping in view the vast size of the Indian electorate of nearly 97 crore, the number of candidates…, the number of polling booths…, and the problems faced with ballot papers, we would be undoing the electoral reforms by directing reintroduction of the ballot papers,” it had said.

In July last year, the top court had refused to review its verdict rejecting PILs demanding return to the paper ballot system or a 100% cross-verification of votes cast through EVMs with VVPAT slips.

On Monday, the top court said the issue couldn’t be agitated again and again and junked the PIL.