SC admits appeal against Gujarat HC order rejecting demand of use of ballot in assembly polls

Ahmedabad/New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI), central government, Gujarat government and others including the 2 government owned companies associated with the manufacturing of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) on an appeal against a Gujarat High Court order.

The full bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice of India J. S. Khehar, Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul admitted the appeal filed by Reshma Patel, a member of Haridk Patel led Patidar Anamat Anadolan Samiti (PAAS) , against the April 12 order of the Gujarat High Court rejecting her demand of use of either Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) fitted EVM’s or Ballot Papers in the assembly elections in the state due to be held by December this year.

The Court has also issued notice to Gujarat State Election Commission. Senior advocate Kapil Sibbal appeared for the appellant. The matter is likely to come up for further hearing in the first week of July. The petitioner in her prayer has also sought other remedies in such as to take all the necessary steps and ensure that the names of Voters are not deleted.

Earlier the division bench of Gujarat High Court comprising, Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and V M Pancholi had summarily rejected the public interest litigation plea (PIL) of Reshma Patel.

Reshma had following BJP’s landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and the allegations by various opposition parties regarding the possibility of rigging electronic voting machines (EVMs) had moved Gujarat high court seeking use of EVM’s with VVPAT (a kind of receipt verifying the voting) or ballot papers in the upcoming state assembly elections. She had argued that election conducted through EVM’s with VVPAT or ballot papers would negate any scope of rigging. She had also sought a stay on elections till final outcome of her PIL. Her counsel Rafik Lokhandwala, citing a 2013 judgement of the Supreme Court, had argued that despite the apex court’s direction to use EVM’s with VVPAT in elections, till today the election commission has not followed it. Arguing that there was a possibility of tampering with EVM, Patel had sought directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the state government and other authorities to provide the VVPAT system with EVM if it decides to continue with EVM at all. She had claimed that this is a necessary step to bring in transparency in polling because paper trail is a convincing proof that EVM has rightly registered the vote cast by a voter in favour of a particular candidate.

Assembly election in Gujarat is due to be held by December this year when the term of the current 13 th assembly ends.

DeshGujarat