Plea For 100% VVPAT Verification Of EVM Votes : Live Updates From Supreme Court
The Supreme Court will hear today petitions seeking 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the petitions filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and others.Responding to the petition filed by ADR, the Election Commission of India had cited practical difficulties in verifying all VVPATs. Earlier, a bench led...
The Supreme Court will hear today petitions seeking 100% verification of EVM votes with VVPAT slips.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the petitions filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms and others.
Responding to the petition filed by ADR, the Election Commission of India had cited practical difficulties in verifying all VVPATs. Earlier, a bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while hearing ADR's petition, had expressed reservations about the demand for 100% VVPAT verification, saying that it would add to the ECI's burden without much significant advantage.
Follow this page for live updates from today's hearing.
Hearing ends.
Matter to be taken up on Thursday.
Court: we will take up on Thursday. Will you be happy with the private sector manufacturing the machine?
Let’s keep it on Thursday.
Adv Nizam Pasha: my vote cannot be checked once I have voted. There is not verification. Only under the statute will another vote will be cast and if that is accurate then my vote will be assumed to be accurate.
Court: there are so many assumptions. If the machines are made in a way that no one knows the identity of the voter, that is right
Ahmadi: the ECI said they are not stakeholders, the biggest stakeholders in a democracy is the public
Court: he did not say that, only that sometimes allegations are made by those who are not stakeholders
Adv Husaifa Ahmadi: just because it takes time to verify, that should not be a reason to not call for it to be verified.
If the VVPATs can be compared with actual numbers of votes polled then it shall be in the interest of free and fair elections. The EC should welcome this.
Adv: in the constituent assembly, KM Munshi said that if there is a democracy then the people shall be able to elect their representatives in a manner with impartiality and transparency.
At least 50% verification is needed to restore the confidence.
Court: in each unit the total votes is just 1000, can’t take more than one hour to count it.
Adv: they have said that average time to count VVPAT in one polling station is one hour
Adv: this scrutiny is meaningless
Court: Mr Singh how long does it take to count 5 units?
Singh: 5-6 hours
Court: and to count the votes per machine?
Singh: in the ballot unit the moment the time is over it will come
Adv: there is some confusion that 5% VVPATs have been used. But it is not, it was 5 machines per assembly constituency.
Only 5 units are been scrutinised. The percentage of VVPAT scrutiny is 0.00185%
Not even 1% must be close to 50% scrutiny. You have the machine and paper.
Court: there are bound to be mismatch, there is human error not machine errors. Machine can be manipulated but that be checked and countered, we will see how.
Bhushan: can they say if there is a mismatch they will selectively use VVPAT data