The Top Court will hear next week, the review petition filed by 21 Opposition parties seeking the court direction to Poll Commission of verifying 50% of VVPAT Counts in the national elections 2019. Opposition including Congress and most of its allies under UPA umbrella had on April 24, day after the third phase of polling approached the Top Court with a fresh plea.
However, this is not the first time that Opposition parties had approached the Top Court. Earlier hearing the petition filed by Opposition parties, the Highest Court had on April 8 directed the Election Commission to increase the number of VVPAT Verification from one to five in each assembly segment.
Before the Top Court order, only one VVPAT was crosschecked from each assembly segment/seat.
READ: Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Top Court Directs EC to Increase VVPAT Verification from One to Five per Assembly Segment
Supreme Court to hear next week, the review petition filed by Congress and other parties seeking VVPAT slip counting of 50% EVMs, for Lok Sabha elections. pic.twitter.com/XvTLb8kOab
— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2019
The leaders of the opposition including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar,DMK’s TKS Elangovan, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Sanjay Singh and Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM) Mahendra Singh held a joint presser on April 24 and announced to approach the Top Court seeking to verify 50% of the VVPAT-EVM Counts in the crucial Lok Sabha Polls 2019.
Earlier the Top Court had sought a response from EC over the demand. The Poll Body in response to the Top Court said that 50% verification of VVPAT in every assembly constituency will delay the Lok Sabha election results by 5-6 days.
VVPATs is a unit attached to EVMs and Control Units and it enables the voter to see the name of Candidate and Party to who is vote cast to.
General Elections for the 17th Lok Sabha has already started and will continue till May 19. The counting of votes will be held on May 23 and results will be announced on the same day.
The remaining 169 Lok Sabha Seats will go to polls in last three phases slated for May 6, May 12 and May 19.