The Supreme Court entertained petitions, including one from the Association for Democratic Reforms, advocating for cross-verification of votes with VVPAT. Amid deliberations, Justice Sanjiv Khanna expressed reservations about reverting to paper ballots, citing historical challenges. The debate underscores efforts to enhance electoral transparency and address concerns about voter verifiability.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 The SCI today entertained petitions from Association for Democratic Reform's (ADR) and others urging
00:07 cross-verification of EVM votes with the VVPAD.
00:14 During the hearing, Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Dutta deliberated on the viability
00:18 of reverting back to paper ballots for the general election, citing past challenges with
00:23 this method.
00:25 Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who is representing ADR, proposed three measures for enhanced
00:30 transparency in elections, including a return to paper ballots.
00:34 He also suggested making the VVPAD glass transparent or provide voters with VVPAD slips to insert
00:40 into the ballot box.
00:42 However, Justice Khanna expressed reservations invoking historical issues associated with
00:47 paper ballots.
00:48 Bhushan declared, "We can go back to the paper ballots.
00:52 Giving the voters in question a VVPAD slip is an additional choice.
00:57 If not, the slip falls into machine, from where they can be taken by the voter and placed
01:01 in voting box."
01:02 Subsequently, the original design of the VVPAD was also altered, Bhushan declared.
01:08 Originally intended to be transparent glass, it is now a black opaque mirror glass that
01:12 is only visible during a brief period of light, i.e. seven seconds, on which Justice Khanna
01:18 expressed his criticism.
01:20 He stated and replied that "We are in our 60s.
01:23 We all know what happened when there were paper ballots.
01:26 You may have forgot, but we have not forgotten anything."
01:30 The scepticism underscores the complexity of the ballot debate amid efforts to bolster
01:35 electoral integrity.
01:36 ADR, a petitioner, urged the court to direct the Election Commission and the government
01:41 to ensure voters' ability to verify voters' accuracy through VVPADs, on which the EC replied,
01:47 "If we take counting and verifying on every VVPAD slip with EV, i.e. the electronic votes,
01:53 it will take approximately 12 days for 100% accuracy."
01:57 The plea highlights the absence of a procedure for voters to confirm that their votes have
02:01 been counted as recorded, a crucial aspect for voters' verifiability.
02:05 The plea also argues that the Election Commission's failure to address this gap contradicts Supreme
02:10 Court's directive in the Subramaniam Swamy v. Election Commission of India 2013 verdict,
02:15 emphasising the imperative of a robust mechanism to safeguard the electoral process's integrity.
02:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]