New Delhi: Ahead of the counting on Monday, the Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a petition filed by the Gujarat Pradesh Congress secretary to direct the Election Commission to count at least 25 percent of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) with the votes polled in EVMs in the Assembly elections.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud told senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi appearing for the petitioner that it could not substitute the decision of the Election Commission unless the petitioner was able to demonstrate that such a decision was arbitrary and not in accordance with law.
Gujarat was the second state after Goa to use the VVPAT, where the EVM dispenses a paper proof for the voters so that they can verify if their vote is cast correctly.
The paper trail system was used in all the 50,128 polling booths in Gujarat in the two-phased election whose results are due to be released on December 18.
