NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking complete cross-verification of votes cast using EVMs with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta reserved its verdict after hearing the response of Election Commission on the pleas. The petitioners have also sought reversal of the poll panel’s 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque glass through which a voter can see the slip only when the light is on for seven seconds. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Election Commission, explained the process of how an EVM functions. Advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Gopal Sankararanarayanan appeared for the petitioners. Other lawyers represented the intervenors. On April 16, the top court had deprecated criticism of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and calls for reverting to ballot papers, saying the electoral process in India is a “humongous task” and attempts should not be made to “bring down the system”.
