Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 7
The Supreme Court today rejected a petition by 21 leaders of Opposition parties, seeking further increase in matching of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with EVM results for the ongoing Lok Sabha poll.
The Opposition leaders wanted the top court to review its order directing the EC to match VVPAT slips with the EVM result at five polling booths in each parliamentary constituency.
They wanted the top court to increase verification of VVPAT slips to 50 per cent of the EVMs. However, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi rejected their review petition, saying, “We are not inclined.”
Several Opposition leaders, including Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and CPI’s D Raja, were present in the court for the hearing, which lasted barely a few minutes.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the petitioners had asked for 50 per cent random physical verification of VVPAT slips. “We can settle for 33 or 25 per cent verification,” he said.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal accused the EC of misleading the court.
The Opposition leaders had on April 24 moved the court seeking review of its order, saying the “increase from 1 to 5 is not a reasonable number and does not lead to satisfaction desired by this court”.
The petitioners said “the increase will not make any substantial difference to the situation that existed prior to the passing of the order”.
Opposition meets EC
New Delhi: Having suffered a setback on the legal front with the Supreme Court rejecting their plea for revision of its verdict on VVPAT slips counting, 21 Opposition party leaders on Tuesday met the Election Commission and pressed for a new norm in case there was any case of mismatch between results of EVM and VVPAT. TNS
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2LwVgTx
via Today’s News Headlines
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