The story so far: The Supreme Court on April 18 reserved its judgment on a batch of petitions seeking directions to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the elections. Asserting that voters have the fundamental right to feel confident about the electoral process, the petitioners have voiced their apprehensions about the possibility of EVMs malfunctioning or being tampered with to register votes in favour of a party.
However, a Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta observed during the proceedings that EVMs give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them and further pointed out that an increased voter turnout over the years indicates that the people have faith in the system.
The proceedings in the case and the expected verdict are of immense significance with the Lok Sabha elections currently underway.
