SC rejects plea to further raise VVPAT match

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and 20 other opposition leaders for raising VVPAT match for vote counts in EVMs during general elections 2019.

They wanted the top court to reconsider its order of April 8 by which VVPAT match was ordered to be raised from one to five EVMs in per Assembly segment of each Parliamentary constituency. 

"We are not inclined to modify our order," a bench presided over by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

The court dismissed the review petitions filed by Naidu and others.

Senior advocates A M Singhvi with Kapil Sibal, appearing for opposition leaders, contended that the VVPAT match should be increased to at least 25 or 33 %. At present, it is about 2% of the EVMs. 

"It is for increasing satisfaction and confidence-building measure. It must be viable," Singhvi said. The top court, however, rejected the plea.

Naidu, CPI's D Raja, DMK's T K S Elangovan and National Conference's Farooq Abdullah were personally present in the court during the hearing.

Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) in EVMs are presently used in all polling stations. But results of EVMs and VVPATs were earlier matched in one EVM per Assembly segment or constituency, which was ordered by the top to be raised to five EVMs.