Supreme Court Notice To EC on Plea By Opposition Parties on VVPAT VerificationTop Stories

March 15, 2019 13:30
Supreme Court Notice To EC on Plea By Opposition Parties on VVPAT Verification

(Image source from: The Hindu)

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Election Commission of India (ECI) on petition filed by 21 opposition parties seeking paper audit of votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). The Parties sought mandatory verification of 50 percent of votes cast through EVMs by Voter Verifiable Paper Trail (VVPAT) before announcement of results in the forthcoming lok sabha polls.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also asked Election Commission to depute a senior officer to assist the court and posted the matter for next hearing on March 25, news agency ANI reported.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N ChandraBabu Naidu said after the Opposition parties meeting in February that they will move to Supreme court against use of EVMs. Naidu is the lead petitioner in this case.

The parties which approached SC include Naisu’s Telugu Desam Party, the Congress,  Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party , Arvind Kejriwal’s  Aam Aadmi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Derek O’Brien -Trinamool Congress, Farooq Abdullah-National Conference, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Sharad Yadav’s Loktantrik Janata Dal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

The decision to approach apex court was taken in the meeting at Sharad Pawar’s residence.

The opposition parties raised doubts over EVMs several times in past, However, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on January 24 said that the country would not revert to usingballot papers for elections.

The general elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 and results to be declared on May 23.

By Sai Kumar

If you enjoyed this Post, Sign up for Newsletter

(And get daily dose of political, entertainment news straight to your inbox)

Rate This Article
(0 votes)