The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the use of paper trail in electronic voting machines and said the new technology, which was tested successfully in an Assembly constituency in Nagaland this year, was “indispensable” for free and fair elections.
With General Elections in mind, the Supreme Court (SC) urged the Election Commission (EC) to consider using the new electronic voting machines (EVM) in a phased manner in the ensuing lok Sabha polls.
“The area, State or actual booth(s) are to be decided by the EC and the EC is free to implement the same in a phased manner,” said a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, disposing a PIl filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The SC appreciated the EC for testing the machines designed by Bharat Electronics limited and Electronics Corporation of India limited in the election to Noksen Assembly seat in Nagaland.
An affidavit filed by the EC had indicated it would require 13 lakh machines fitted with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) at a cost of Rs 1,690 crore. At present, only 70 such machines were available with the EC. The EC had written to the Union law Ministry to sanction an additional Rs 38 crore for procuring 20,000 VVPAT machines.
As no discrepancy was reported in the trial run, the bench said: “We are satisfied that the paper trail is an indispensible requirement for free and fair elections.”
While the choice of timing and place to use the new system was left to the EC, the bench directed the Centre to provide the required financial assistance.“The confidence of the voters in the EVMs can be achieved only with the introduction of the paper trail” the bench noted.
In the coming General Elections, the EC will have to cover 10 lakh polling booths. Taking this fact into account, the bench permitted the poll panel to introduce the system in “gradual stages or geographical wise in the ensuing general elections.”