SC dismisses Congress plea seeking cross verification of atleast 25% VVPAT slips

Congress leaders and senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal will be appearing for the grand old party in this case, which is likely to be heard today.

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Congress party's plea seeking direction to the Election Commission to verify at least 25 percent of paper trails generated by the VVPAT machines with the actual vote tally in EVMs.

The counting of votes for assembly elections held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are scheduled to be held on Monday.

According to news agency ANI, the Supreme Court said that it finds no merit in Congress' plea, adding that the Gujarat Congress can approach the apex court through filing a writ petition for electoral reforms.

VVPAT or voter verifiable paper audit trail machines generate a printed slip confirming the voter's choice when he voted on an EVM. The slip can be seen by the voter for sometime before it is collected in a seperate box attached to the machine. By this, voter can verify if the party he has voted for is the one that appears on the slip.

The Election Commission had in July decided to compulsorily tally paper trail slips with the results of EVMs in 5 per cent of polling stations in each assembly seat, for all state and Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress had in September urged the Election Commission (EC) to mandatorily hold all the future elections with the paper trail of votes.

OneIndia News