The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking 100 per cent verification of voter verifiable paper audit trail slips with electronic voting machines during counting of votes on May 23 for the Lok Sabha polls.
A vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra 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 CJI had dealt with this matter. Why are you taking chance before a two-judge vacation bench,” the apex court asked.
Dubbing the PIL filed by
a collective of technocrats called ‘Tech4All’ a “nuisance”, the
Vacation Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M.R. Shah junked the PIL in a brief
hearing.
The Bench pointed out that all the seven phases of polling
are over and the country is looking forward to form a new government on May 23.
The PIL is ill-timed and would only disrupt the electoral process which is on its
last spring to the finish line.
The PIL had cited the recent allegations of changing the EVMs
even as the Election Commission of India is strongly denying them.
Twitter has been following an EVM Scandal tag where in people have tweeted massively about EVMs not safe. “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 verification 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.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the silence of the Election Commission was worrying even after “evidence” had come to the fore that the EVMs used in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls were being switched.