‘Nurturing culture of…’ Here’s why Supreme Court rejected pleas seeking 100% verification of EVM-VVPAT?

The Supreme Court on April 26 rejected the pleas seeking 100% cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with paper slips generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The verdict comes in the middle of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, and on a day, 88 seats go to vote in the second phase of polling.

The two judges on the bench, Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, authored separate yet concurring judgments in the matter. The court said it had elaborately discussed the protocols and technical aspects before rejecting the petitions.

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Justice Khanna said in the court that the prayers for reverting to ballot paper voting, complete EVM-VVPAT verification, and giving VVPAT slips to voters to put in the ballot box have been rejected. 

“We have rejected all of them after referring to the protocol in place, technical aspects and data which is on record,” Justice Khanna said, according to the legal news website LiveLaw.

Blindly doubting a system

The court said that while a balanced perspective is important, blindly doubting a system could lead to unwarranted scepticism. “While balanced perspective is important, but blindly doubting a system can breed scepticism, and thus meaningful criticism is needed,” said Justice Datta according to Bar and Bench. 

“Be it judiciary, legislature etc, democracy is all about maintaining harmony and trust among all the pillars. By nurturing a culture of trust and collaboration, we can strengthen the voice of our democracy,” Justice Datta said adding that the court's approach in this matter has been guided by evidence.

Also Read: Lok Sabha elections 2024: What are VVPAT slips & what is the INDIA bloc's demand on this?

The bunch of petitions by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Abhay Bhakchand Chhajed, and Arun Kumar Aggarwal before the top court had sought a direction to cross-verify every vote cast on EVMs with paper slips generated by the VVPAT. 

As per the existing system, cross-verification using VVPAT is done randomly for five selected EVMs for each assembly seat. 

Vague grounds to doubt EVMs, VVPATs

The Election Commission had opposed the pleas, saying that it was another attempt to cast doubt over the functioning of EVMs and VVPATs on 'vague and baseless' grounds. The poll panel also argued that manually counting all VVPAT paper slips, as prayed in the plea, would be a time-consuming exercise and prone to 'human error' and 'mischief'. The ECI also said that EVMs are non-tamperable.

The top court had said earlier that it does not ‘control elections’ and cannot dictate the functioning of the Election Commission, a constitutional authority. It had also said it cannot act on mere suspicion.

Also Read: ‘We cannot control the election…,’ says Supreme Court as it reserves verdict on EVM-VVPAT verification

“If you are predisposed about a thought process, then we cannot help you... we are not here to change your thought process.”

In earlier hearings in the case, the petitioners cited European countries that went back to a ballot voting system. The court, however, observed that India, where challenges are different, can’t be compared with European nations. The poll panel has been arguing that the current system is foolproof. 

INDIA bloc’s demand

Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc had been demanding complete (100 percent) counting of VVPATs to increase public confidence in EVMs and to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.

The VVPAT machine is attached to the ballot unit of the EVM and provides visual verification of a voter’s vote by printing a slip of paper with the voter’s choice on it. This is later used to verify votes cast in five randomly selected polling booths per Assembly segment. The Opposition has been demanding that all VVPAT slips be cross-checked with the EVM votes.

This is not the first time that the matter has reached the top court. On May 21, 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed a writ petition seeking 100 percent counting of VVPAT in the Lok Sabha polls. Two days later, the result of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 was announced. 

Earlier in the same month, the top court had dismissed the review petition filed by 21 opposition parties to increase verification of VVPAT-EVM to 50 per cent.

What is a VVPAT?

Introduced for the first time in India in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, VVPAT, or the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, is a ballot-less vote verification system connected with the EVM.

Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Of 88 seats voting today in Phase 2, BJP had won 54 in 2019

The VVPAT generates a paper slip to be viewed by the voter and allows him/her to verify whether the vote was cast correctly on the EVM. The slip contains the name and symbol of the party they have voted for. 

The machine also has a transparent window for the voter to see the printed slip. Eventually, the slip goes inside a sealed box of the machine. This can, however, be opened if there is a dispute.