The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a review plea filed by 21 opposition parties seeking an increase in VVPAT verification from five to at least 50 percent of EVMs during counting of votes in the general elections 2019.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the Supreme Court is not inclined to interfere. “We are not inclined to modify our order. [For] how many days will we hear the same matter,” said the top court.
#SupremeCourt rejects review plea filed by twenty-one Opposition parties seeking a direction to increase VVPAT verification from five to at least 50% of EVMs during counting of votes in the general elections 2019 pic.twitter.com/USl7aa3nE5
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) May 7, 2019
Senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the opposition parties, said, “Unfortunately our plea has not been accepted today. We have pointed out lacunae in EC approach. But there aren’t guidelines on what they will do if they find defects.”
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Opposition parties, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, were demanding 50 percent verification of the VVPAT slips.
Earlier, on 8 April, the apex court had directed the Election Commission to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs in five polling booths per Assembly segment from one booth.