The petitioner suggests that stationing more officers in each assembly constituency and conducting simultaneous verification could finish the VVPAT verification in five to six hours.
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However, on Monday, April 1, the Indian Supreme Court requested a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI). It was regarding verifying all voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips throughout election campaigns. Currently, VVPAT verification examines only votes recorded in five randomly chosen Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly segment. However, the petition rests on tallying every vote cast in the EVM against the associated VVPAT slips.
Although, Arun Kumar Agrawal, an activist and lawyer, has filed a petition alleging that the ECI’s rule requiring consecutive VVPAT verification is causing excessive delays in the counting process. It continues by asserting that stationing more officers in each assembly constituency and conducting simultaneous verification could complete the VVPAT verification in five to six hours.
Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta sent the to ECI, who combined the plea with issues involving EVMs.
In a recent petition, the ECI mentioned practical challenges in validating every VVPAT. A court chaired by Justice Sanjiv Khanna had voiced dissent about the requirement for 100% VVPAT verification. It was argued that there would be no discernible benefit and that it would simply increase the ECI’s workload.
The petitioner suggests that stationing more officers in each assembly constituency and conducting simultaneous verification could complete the VVPAT verification in five to six hours. The plea brings up earlier court cases about VVPAT verification. Some of them being as opposition parties’ demands for more VVPAT verification before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Supreme Court rejected the case and raised the number of EVMs used for verification from one to five in each assembly segment. The petitioner asserts that counting every slip carefully is necessary in light of previous disparities.
Jairam Ramesh, a congress lawmaker, said the notification was a crucial first step. But the issue needs to be resolved before the elections start for it to have any significance. To boost public confidence in EVMs and maintain the integrity of the electoral process. A delegation of INDIA party leaders has been seeking 100% VVPATs, and the Election Commission has refused to meet with them, he continued.