'We All know What Happened When There Were Ballot Papers': Supreme Court On VVPAT Counting Petition

The Supreme Court, while hearing petitions advocating for cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with paper slips generated through the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system, raised concerns about the secret ballot voting method.

Justice Sanjiv Khanna highlighted past issues with ballot papers, suggesting the problems of returning to paper ballots.

"We are in our 60s. We all know what happened when there were ballot papers, you may have, but we have not forgotten," he said.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan underscored discrepancies in VVPAT usage and stressed the importance of robust verification procedures to uphold the integrity of the electoral process.

"We can go back to paper ballots. Another option is to give VVPAT slip to the voters in hand," Bhushan said.

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The case, filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activist Arun Kumar Agarwal, seeks comprehensive cross-verification of all VVPAT slips to instill confidence among voters.

The petitioners argue that such verification is essential to ensure that every vote is accurately recorded and counted.

"Machine normally without human intervention will give you accurate results. Yes, the problem arises when there is human intervention or makes unauthorised changes... If you have any suggestion to avert this, then you can give us that," Justice Khanna said.

Bhushan then read out a research paper on the possibility of EVMs being tampered. "They are only counting 5 VVPAT machines per assembly when there are 200 such machines... The seven-second light can also lead to manipulation," he said.

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