PTI, NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea of the Gujarat Congress seeking counting of at least 20 per cent of the paper trail slips manually along with votes cast in the EVMs in each constituency of the state. It said that the court cannot interfere unless the Election Commission of India’s decision to restrict the EVM- VVPAT paper trail to one booth per constituency is proved “arbitrary”, “illegal” or “malafide”.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud permitted petitioner Mohammad Arif Rajput, a Gujarat Congress leader, to withdraw his plea but granted liberty to file a comprehensive petition later seeking election reforms. The apex court said that a debate on polls reforms can only take place after the election process in the state is over.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Rajput, said that the counting of the slips of the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines along with the votes cast in the electronic voting machines (EVM) count in at least 20 per cent of the booths of each constituency would reassure the people about the fairness of the polls.
The bench then questioned the locus standi of the petitioner and asked Singhvi who he was representing. The counsel replied that he was a secretary of the main opposition party Congress in Gujarat.
The bench told Singhvi that his client had approached it in his personal capacity and he should have let the party take a bold stand and approach the court. Singhvi said, “I am an officer bearer of the party in the state.”
