8.3.2022,
Tuesday
New
Delhi:
The
Supreme Court on Tuesday refused urgent hearing on a plea seeking verification
of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting
Machines (EVMs) before the counting of votes, saying it is not interfering as
the counting is scheduled on March 10 for assembly polls held in five states.
The plea has also said the verification of VVPAT with the EVMs,
which are being conducted at five polling booths per assembly segment, be
raised to five polling stations, a larger unit as one polling station has
several polling booths.
"We
are not interfering, let the counting go on as per established practice,
procedures and law. They (Election commission) are following the judgment. They
have made a statement (to this effect)," said the bench comprising Chief
Justice NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli.
The
bench, in the forenoon, reluctantly agreed to hear the plea when senior lawyer
Meenakshi Arora, appearing for petitioner Rakesh Kumar, mentioned it for urgent
listing saying she will be intimating the poll panel about the proposed
hearing.
Later
in the afternoon, senior advocate Maninder Singh appeared for the poll panel
and said the Commission has been following the verdict of the top court in
relation to VVPAT verification and the officials have been trained to counting
of votes accordingly.
"We
are not interfering at the moment," the bench said, adding that the
petition will be considered in the regular course only.
In
the morning when the plea was mentioned, the bench said, "You are coming
at the last moment... Last minute ,if you are asking us to take it up then we
do not have time. You know the counting is the day after tomorrow. You should
have mentioned it yesterday. You are mentioning it now. Assuming for a minute,
we hear it tomorrow, will it be possible to send to all the states a particular
direction to follow."
At
the outset, Ms Arora referred to the 2019 order of the top court on a plea of
several leaders including Chandrababu Naidu and said that it was directed that
the "verification for VVPAT will be done for at least five polling
stations".
"But what is being
done is the VVPAT verification is being done at one polling booth of a polling
station... At one polling station there are more than one polling booths,"
she said.
She
also sought VVPAT verification at the start of the counting against the present
practice of doing it at the end.
The
verification of the VVPAT is being done at the end after the complete counting
is over and by that time, polling agents of many candidates, who are out of
fray by the end of the counting, leave the venue and hence there "no
transparency" in real sense, she said.
The
bench then agreed to hear the plea on Wednesday. But later, on being told by
the poll panel, refused to take it up urgently.
The
Supreme Court, on April 8, 2019, had directed the Election Commission to
increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per
assembly segment, from one, in the then Lok Sabha polls saying it will provide
greater satisfaction not just to political parties but the entire electorate.