GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court announced today that it will address the issue concerning Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data cross-checking against Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records in two weeks, following a mention by senior advocate Kapil Sibal. The matter was brought before a Special Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, accompanied by Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Bela M Trivedi.
Advocate Sibal urged that the case be heard next week on Tuesday. However, the petitions were not listed for today's hearing due to Justice Khanna's leadership of the Special Bench.
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Senior advocate Gopal Sankarayanarayan echoed Sibal's request, emphasising the impending Lok Sabha elections. In response, Justice Khanna acknowledged the urgency but explained that due to the current roster, the case might be postponed from the next week's list.
During the proceedings, Justice Khanna sought insight from the advocate on record Prashant Bhushan, questioning the anticipated duration for reaching a decision. Previously, a bench led by Justice BR Gavai had issued a notice on a separate petition advocating for 100% verification of VVPAT slips, filed by petitioners including the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms.
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The petitioners advocated for comprehensive verification of all VVPATs, rather than the current practice of random verification of 5 EVMs per assembly segment. They also seek measures to ensure that voters' votes are accurately recorded and counted.