The apex court directs EC to increase VVPAT verification from one EVM to five EVMs per constituency

New Delhi, April 8: Viewing to accompany in greater satisfaction of voters as well as political parties, the Supreme Court on Monday increased the number of EVM for physical VVPAT counting from one to five per parliamentary constituency.

 

It directed that the EVMs will continue to be picked up randomly and added that the existing set up of having five officials from the EC should be able to carry out this direction effectively. "The present direction should not also cause much delay in the declaration of the result," said the led bench.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi maintained that the number of EVMs for physical verification with the paper audit trails was being hiked to bring in greater degree of satisfaction in the electoral process. “This order is not a commentary on any deficiency in the existing system whereby the Election Commission picks up one EVM every constituency for matching the votes with the paper audit trails”, the court said.

While the bench expressed satisfaction with the existing system, it added that it would be interest of electoral process that EC increases from one to five EVMs for physical verification. The Supreme Court was hearing petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to only audit EVM count using VVPAT slips from one polling station per constituency.