Supreme Court junks plea for 100% manual counting of VVPAT slips during polls

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan was dealing with the plea of one Hans Raj Jain against the August 12, 2024 judgement of the Delhi High Court on the issue.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a plea seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India for a 100 per cent manual counting of voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips in addition to electronic counting by the control unit.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan said a detailed judgment raising similar issues have been passed and cannot be agitated again and again.

The court rejected the plea filed by one Hans Raj Jain against the August 12, 2024 judgment of the Delhi High Court on the subject.

The bench said it is not keen to interfere with the judgment of the high court on the issue.

Refusing to entertain the plea, the bench said, “We do not find any good ground to interfere with the impugned judgement (of the Delhi high court). The special leave petition is dismissed”.

Rejecting the pleas for 100 per cent cross-verification of electronic voting machines (EVMs) data with VVPAT records, the court had then held EVMs were safe, simple, secure, and user-friendly.

In August last year, the Delhi High Court had referred to apex court judgments and dismissed Jain's plea. It subsequently rejected a plea seeking the review of its verdict.

The Election Commission had informed the High Court that the issue was fully covered by the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Association for Democratic Reforms Vs Election Commission of India.

Jain sought directions to the election commission to use appropriate prototype of VVPAT system in future, in which the printer is kept open and the printed ballot, which gets cut and falls out of the printer, is subject to verification by the voter, before providing the same to a presiding officer.