SC refuses Congress plea for counting of paper slips in Gujarat

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea that it direct the Election Commission to tally the votes cast through electronic voting machines in Gujarat assembly polls with the paper trail slips in at least 10-15% of booths.

A Congress activist from the state demanded tallying of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to allay apprehensions of EVM tampering and ensuring free and fair polls. But the top court refused to interfere with the poll panel’s work in the middle of the election process.

“We can consider proper electoral reforms of VVPATs later,” a threejudge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, rejecting an appeal against a Gujarat HC that had earlier refused to accept the plea.


Appearing for the Congress activist, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi termed the EC’s directive that EVM votes would be tallied with VVPATs in at least one booth in every constituency as a “superficial”, “meaningless” exercise.

The EC should tally at least 15% or even 25% of the booths, he contended. “This is just a drop in the ocean, arandom check.”

But the top court did not accept his plea. Justice Misra first wondered whether the courts could step in once the election process got underway.

Once satisfied that the court could interfere to further the democratic process and not halt it, the bench found other reasons to reject the plea. Justice DY Chandrachud initially asked why party candidates or their polling agents could not ask the returning officer to take action if they doubted the process under a different provision of the law.

Singhvi contended that this left too much discretion with the returning officer. He also claimed that parties were claiming ahead of polls that they would get 150 seats. “People must be reassured that a check is being done of the 50,000 EVMs used in the state,” he demanded. Singhvi also argued that this was the first time in an election that the entire EVM machines used had the VVPATs facility.

Singhvi, backed by senior advocate Vivek Tankha, said there had been more than 100 complaints against EVMs so far from the state. “Doubts are being raised. Tallying more booths would be reassuring.” After the court said it cannot override the commission’s discretion to conduct the polls, Singhvi scaled down his demand and said tallying should be done in at least 10% of the booths per constituency.

But the bench stuck to its stand, asking: “Can we supplant EC decision in absence of mala fide or if it’s not arbitrary? Or in breach of the law?” Justice AM Khanwilkar asked why the Congress party had not filed an independent petition. “A political party must be more daring,” he said. The bench, however, said that it may take up the issue of reforming the VVPATs systems at a later stage, once the poll dust settles.

While announcing the dates for the Gujarat election on October 25, the Election Commission had announced that EVMs used in all 182 constituencies will be connected to VVPATS. Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti also announced that paper trail tallying would be carried out in one randomly selected polling station of each constituency.