NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday took less than a minute to seek the Election Commission’s response to a joint petition filed by leaders of 21 non-NDA political parties pleading for mandatory counting of VVPAT paper slips in at least 50% of EVMs in each assembly segment in the Lok Sabha elections even though it may delay declaration of results.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi, who played a key role in framing the proposal and circulating it among non-NDA parties, did not have to make elaborate arguments as a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna instantly issued notice to the EC. It called for a suitable officer of the EC to be in court on March 25, when the matter would be taken up for hearing.
“Competent authority of the Election Commission of India shall depute a suitable officer to assist the court on March 25,” the bench said.
The demand of the parties, which claim to represent 70-75% of India’s population electorally, follows their claim that EVMs have not been reliable and can be manipulated. The EC has repeatedly asserted that EVMs do not have a wireless link and cannot be hacked . Last year, it organized a challenge for the “ experts” to and hack the machines.
Please click here to read more.