New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday junked a plea filed a group of technocrats seeking a direction that the number of machines subject to verification of VVPATs to be increased to 100 per cent. A vacation bench of the top court said that it didn't find any merit in the petition filed by the a Chennai-based organisation - Tech for All. In its plea, the group had sought 100 per cent matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during counting of votes for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 23.
Dismissing the plea, the top court said that no such prayer can be entertained as a larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, had already heard it and passed an order.
"The CJI had dealt with this matter. Why are you taking chance before a two-judge vacation bench," the bench asked. "We cannot override the CJI's order... This is nonsense. The petition is taken on board. Dismissed," Justice Mishra said.
The apex court had on May 7 dismissed a review plea filed by 21 Opposition leaders led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu seeking that random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs be increased to 50 per cent.
The top court had on April 8 directed the Election Commission to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs from one to five polling booths per assembly segment in Lok Sabha polls, saying it would provide greater satisfaction not just to political parties but also to the entire electorate.
