The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking 100 per cent matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes for the 17th Lok Sabha elections on May 23.
Supreme Court dismisses the petition filed by a group of technocrats seeking a direction that the number of machines subject to verification of VVPATs to be increased to 100%. A vacation bench of the Apex Court did not find any merit in the petition filed by the technocrats. pic.twitter.com/TEVcHf3VbL
— ANI (@ANI) May 21, 2019
A vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and also comprising Justice M R Shah refused to entertain the plea filed by a Chennai-based organisation ‘Tech for All’, saying that a larger bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had already dealt with the matter and passed an order.
The apex court asked, “The CJI had dealt with this matter. Why are you taking chance before a two-judge vacation bench.”
“We cannot override the CJI’s order… This is nonsense. The petition is taken on board. Dismissed,” Justice Mishra said.
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On May 7, the apex court had dismissed a review plea filed by 21 opposition leaders spearheaded 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.