MARGAO: Hailing the Supreme Court (SC) for issuing notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition seeking the complete counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in the general elections, a group of activists from Goa who were part
of the ‘EVM Hatao, Desh Bachao’ felt that the apex court’s action has vindicated their stand and demanded that the same be implemented during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing journalists, the activists, who acknowledged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not officially reacted to the notices issued by the SC, felt the ECI would be bound to follow the Apex Court’s directions on issues raised in the petition against EVMs filed by he Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)
The group also criticised the ECI for failing to pay heed to their demands earlier
as well as the rest of the groups who had had made similar demands.
The activists also said that the EVMs are being procured using tax payers’ money. They stated that implementing their demands is not a big deal and there is adequate time for it to be implemented during the election phases for the Lok Sabha polls.
The SC on Monday (April 1) issued notice to ECI on a plea seeking the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in the upcoming elections, to ensure that EVMs are registering votes correctly.
At the moment, only votes in five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment are tallied against the VVPAT slips.
The SC bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued notice and clubbed the petition with a plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on the same matter. The new plea was filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Agrawal.
The petition also challenges the ECI’s rule that VVPAT verification should be done sequentially rather than simultaneously, creating
delays. If it were done simultaneously, and more officers are deployed, complete verification could be done in 5-6 hours.
Amidst the numerous concerns raised by experts regarding VVPATs and EVMs coupled with the significant number of reported discrepancies between EVM and VVPAT vote counts in the past, it is essential that all VVPAT slips be meticulously counted, the petitioner argued. Earlier this year, the court had refused to grant ADR urgent hearing on its 2021 petition.
