SC issues notice to EC on VVPAT verification plea

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Election Commission and others on petitions filed by senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot seeking directions to conduct VVPAT verification at least 10% randomly in each Assembly constituency in upcoming polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also sought a response from the state elections commissioners from both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan on the petitions also seeking a direction to delete duplicate voters from the list.

Senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, representing the petitioners, contended that Kamal Nath had got a survey conducted in Madhya Pradesh, which found that there were 60 lakh duplicate voters in the list.

The petitioner-Congress leaders were represented by senior advocates Vivek Tankha, Salman Khurshid, Anoop George Chaudhury, June Chaudhury and Varun K Chopra.

The court put the petitions for further consideration on August 31 for passing interim directions.

Among others, the petitioners sought a direction to publish voter list in text format, and to expeditiously decide all complaints with regard to final publication of voter list and to prohibit deletion of voters from the voter list without intimation to political parties.