With the Election Commission appearing reluctant to have verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) EVMs for Gujarat State elections in December this year, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed it to file an affidavit on the number of VVPAT EVMs available. The court grew wary of the poll watchdog's reluctance because while the EC said it did not have enough EVMs, the Centre pointed out that the Commission had 87,000 VVPAT EVMs. The Court was also informed that Gujarat in all needed only 71,000 of those machines.
The occasion for the Court to deal with the issue arose on a petition filed by one Reshma Patel who demanded VVPAT to be fitted in all EVMs in the upcoming Gujarat elections. The Centre filed an affidavit informing the bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud that the President had sanctioned the release of a sum of Rs 3173.47 crore for acquiring 16.15 lakh EVMs fitted with VVPAT.
The affidavit further stated that as per available information, ECI has in possession some 20300 VVPAT EVMs and even placed orders for additional 67000 in year 2016.
In this backdrop, senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for the petitioner argued that this number was sufficient to hold elections in Gujarat which required an estimated 71000 EVMs. The counsel for Election Commission stated there were not enough EVMs.
But when confronted with the fact that the Centre's affidavit claims the EC to have possession of 87000 odd EVMs, the counsel said that not all these machines are in working condition.
The bench said, "The manner in which you are arguing, it seems you do not want to have VVPAT machines." The Court demanded on affidavit the total working stock of VVPAT machines and the desirability to employ them in the coming Gujarat elections.
Sibal said that the Supreme Court in a decision on October 8, 2013 had held paper trail to be an essential part of free and fair elections to which EC never objected in the past.The bench posted the matter after a month while warning EC, "We will enforce it upon you as everybody should know that everything is fairly done. Your demeanour does not show that."