Time and again, demands have been made for cross-verification of the votes through the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). However, counting all the paper slips has its costs in terms of skilled manpower and time required, the Supreme Court was informed by the Election Commission.
In a counter affidavit filed by the EC in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the poll body said manual counting of this scale will also be prone to human error and mischief, leaving aside the drudgery of days of counting small slips of paper.
In a more than 400-page long affidavit, the EC noted that it is now 40 years since the induction of EVMs in the Indian election system.
“Time and again, EVMs have been subjected to various kinds of allegations related to technological and non-technological aspects by various stakeholders and others and most of such allegations have been examined by the constitutional courts several times,” the EC said.
The poll body further said apart from the fact that EVM has faithfully reflected the mandates of the people over these years, the courts have also always upheld its technological integrity and transparent procedural safeguards.
The EC said the law does not provide for counting of VVPAT slips except in special specified circumstances.
The poll body mentioned that millions of government employees and security forces work “tirelessly, dedicatedly, against all geographical challenges and under adverse and challenging work environments” to conduct elections.
“Such kind of baseless repetitive doubts and aspersions cast shadow on honesty, dedication and toil of such millions of election soldiers. It is very unfortunate,” they said.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court, led by a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SV Bhatti, took up the matter of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking cross-verification by voters of the votes cast by them through the VVPAT. The apex court has adjourned the matter till November.
This comes ahead of the many Assembly elections later this year and Lok Sabha around early 2024.
The EC called the petition “another attempt to cast doubt over the functioning of EVMs/ VVPATs with vague and baseless grounds”.
“Yet, on the eve of elections, such petitions are filed to rile up unfounded and baseless doubts about the veracity of EVM/ VVPAT system in the minds of the voters,” they added.
The EC also called it “very unfortunate” that such petitions come up before every Lok Sabha without any substance or new facts.
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