Delhi HC seeks EC response on plea for verification of VVPAT slips used in 2019 LS polls

Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to respond to a representation of a petitioner seeking inspection of record of all printed paper slips in the dropbox of the printer of VVPAT (voter-verifiable paper audit trail) electronic device used in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The petitioner has alleged discrepancies and mismatching in the number of votes polled on EVMs and counted votes in over 373 Lok Sabha Constituencies in 2019 general elections.

The court was hearing a plea filed by social activist Hans Raj Jain who also sought a direction to the ECI to use an appropriate prototype of the VVPAT system in the future, in which the printer is kept open.

The printed ballot will fall in a tray kept in front of the printer. The voter will then pick it up from the tray, verify it, fold it and bring it out of the voting compartment and will drop it in a sealed box kept for this purpose, in front of the presiding officer at the polling station.

The petitioner has also requested the court to pass a direction to the poll body to manually count the slips in the dropbox of the printer at all polling stations in all Parliamentary and Assembly elections in the future.