Supreme Court asks Election body to file affidavit on physical verification of VVPATs by March 28

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Election Commission to file an affidavit mentioning its stand on increasing the proportion of EVM votes verified with paper trail. The judges also felt the Election Commission should increase the percentage of votes randomly verified against the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta directed that the affidavit has to be filed by 4 pm on Thursday this week.

"No institution including judiciary should insulate itself from suggestions/ improvements," Supreme Court asks Election Commission to file on affidavit why physical verification of VVPAT Paper trail should not be extended to more than one polling station per assembly segment.

The petition filed by leaders of various political parties seeks physical verification of VVPAT Paper trail for at least 50 percent of the polling stations. The Court had issued a notice to the Election Commission during the last hearing and had asked the Election Commission to depute a senior official to assist the court.