SC dismisses plea for 100% VVPAT in Assembly polls

'We are not going to interfere in the middle of the election process,' a bench said

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a plea by a Trinamool Congress leader for a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to introduce 100% Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system for all the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the ongoing Assembly polls.

"We are not going to interfere in the middle of the election process," a bench presided by Chief Justice S A Bobde told the counsel appearing for petitioner Gopal Seth.

The counsel contended that a free and fair election was a right of the citizens.

"We agree with you on this, but we will not interfere," the bench reiterated.

Read: Explained | What is VVPAT and how it functions

The ECI has decided to use VVPATs along with EVMs at all the polling stations in the Assembly elections in four states and one Union territory.

The VVPAT is a method of providing feedback to voters using EVMs. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly.

However, it was decided that a VVPAT slip count of five randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly Constituency would be done for verification of the result obtained from the Control Unit, in terms of the previous order of the top court.