Why EVMs with VVPAT can't be used in upcoming MCD polls, HC asks State EC
The Hindu
Delhi HC asked the counsel for the State Election Commission to take instructions on the issue and listed the matter for further hearing on March 22
The Delhi High Court Monday asked the state election commission as to why EVMs with VVPAT cannot be used for the upcoming elections of municipal corporations of Delhi (MCD).
Justice Rekha Palli asked the counsel for the State Election Commission to take instructions on the issue and listed the matter for further hearing on March 22.
The High Court was hearing a petition by the Aam Aadmi Party, filed through MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, seeking direction to the State Election Commission of Delhi to conduct the upcoming MCD polls with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) which are compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and not without them.
The party, represented through senior advocate Rahul Mehra and lawyer Rakesh Kumar Sinha, said the EVMs without VVPAT machines make it almost impossible to ascertain the accuracy of the machines and to rule out any tampering.
“The use of the old M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is in contravention of the express directions issued by the Supreme Court in Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India, (2013), para-29, which emphatically recognised that the incorporation and implementation of a system of paper trail in EVMs is an indispensable requirement of a free and fair elections,” the plea said.
It alleged that the decision of the State election commission to hold the MCD Elections 2022 with M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is manifestly wrong and amounts to a colourable exercise of power.
Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
The former BJP MLA of Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat claimed on Saturday that he contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency as rebel candidate made the saffron party field its party leader C. T. Ravi in the biennial elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly.