NEW DELHI: Weeks after 21 opposition parties approached Supreme Court asking for at least 50 per cent votes cast with EVMs to be verified with VVPAT and the apex court seeking a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the poll body will file its Affidavit with findings of expert committee on March 28.
Sources said that the ECI will file its Affidavit on Thursday, containing the recommendations by the expert committee, which has submitted the report after the Commission asked it to find the possibilities of extending the counting of VVPAT.
According to sources, the expert committee support the poll body’s decisioin to select one booth in each constituency for VVPAT counting.
Earlier, the bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the poll body that why it was not increasing the number of VVPATs for counting and tallying it with EVMs.
Amid growing demands to recall the paper ballot after several opposition parties alleged that the EVMs could be tampered with in favour of the ruling party at Centre, the 21 opposition parties, including the Congress had approached the Supreme Court.
The opposition challenged the Commission’s decision to verify VVPAT of only one booth, selected randomly in every Lok Sabha constituency and pointed out it will be mere one per cent of the total vote cast.
The ECI had assured the apex court that it was confident of the security of the EVMs and said, we have adequate reasons to believe our system is working fine.
The Supreme Court then asked the Commission to file an Affidavit on why it should not introduce more VVPATs in the elections by Thursday.
Earlier, the expert committee comprising ISI chief in Delhi, Abhay G Bhatt, Director of Chennai Mathematical Institute, Rajeeva L Karandikar, and Deputy Director General (Social Statistics Division), Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Onkar Prosad Ghosh, submitted its report.
The Supreme Court will take up the matter on April 1.
(AGENCIES)
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