{"id":40673,"date":"2024-04-27T06:06:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T00:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40673"},"modified":"2025-10-11T12:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:44:03","slug":"vvpat-evm-tally-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vvpat-evm-tally-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Rejects Demand for 100% Verification of VVPAT Slips"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>A Timeline of Introduction of VVPATs in India<\/li>\n<li>What Have Been the Legal Cases Surrounding the VVPAT?<\/li>\n<li>What was the Recent VVPAT-EVM Tally Case?<\/li>\n<li>What has SC Ruled in the VVPAT-EVM Tally Case?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Supreme Court <strong>rejected the demand for 100% verification<\/strong> of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/voter-verifiable-paper-audit-trail-vvpat\/\" target=\"_blank\">Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs)<\/a> in Indian elections.<\/li>\n<li>The SC<strong> also rejected a return to the earlier ballot paper system for elections<\/strong> &#8211; something which opposition parties demanded in recent years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>A Timeline of Introduction of VVPATs in India<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image image_resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiram-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com\/VVPA_Ts_timeline_54a02cbc49.webp\" alt=\"VVPATs timeline\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>The idea of the VVPAT machine first emerged in <strong>2010<\/strong>, when the Election Commission of India (ECI), held a meeting with political parties to discuss <strong>how to make the EVM-based polling process more transparent.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>After a prototype was prepared, <strong>field trials<\/strong> were held in Ladakh, Thiruvananthapuram, Cherrapunjee, East Delhi, and Jaisalmer in <strong>2011<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>After fine-tuning the design, holding more trials, and taking feedback from political parties, <strong>an ECI expert committee approved the design in 2013.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In 2013, <strong>the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961<\/strong> were amended to allow for a printer with a drop box to be attached to the EVM.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The VVPAT was used for the first time<\/strong> in all 21 polling stations of the Noksen Assembly constituency of <strong>Nagaland in 2013.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>After this, the ECI decided to introduce VVPATs in a phased manner and by (June) <strong>2017<\/strong>, there was <strong>100% adoption of VVPATs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In 2018, the ECI asked the <strong>Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)<\/strong> to come up with a mathematically sound and practically cogent sample size for the <strong>internal audit<\/strong> of the VVPAT slips with electronic result of EVMs.<\/li>\n<li>On the basis of which, the ECI mandated the counting of VVPAT slips of one randomly selected polling station per Assembly constituency.<\/li>\n<li><strong>This was increased to five polling stations per Assembly seat<\/strong>, following a SC judgement in 2019.<\/li>\n<li>The five polling stations are <strong>selected by a draw of lots<\/strong> by the Returning Officer concerned, in the presence of candidates\/ their agents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Have Been the Legal Cases Surrounding the VVPAT?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Subramanian Swamy vs ECI (2013): <\/strong>TheSC ruled that a paper trail was indispensable for free and fair elections, and ordered the government to provide funding for the roll-out of VVPATs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chandrababu Naidu Case (2019):<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>He moved the SC asking for a minimum 50% randomised VVPAT slips to be counted.<\/li>\n<li>However, the ECI argued that this would <strong>delay the election results by five to six days<\/strong>, as it takes about an hour for election officers to match VVPAT slips with the EVM count in one polling station.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The EC has also highlighted infrastructure challenges<\/strong>, including the availability of manpower, as obstacles to increasing the number of polling booths where VVPAT slips are counted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Opposition parties argue<\/strong> that the sanctity of a fair election outweighs the concern of delay in the declaration of results.<\/li>\n<li>The court ordered the EC to count VVPATS in<strong> five polling stations instead<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What was the Recent VVPAT-EVM Tally Case?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2023, the ADR had filed <strong>a petition before the apex court<\/strong> saying that to ensure free and fair elections, the tally from Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)\/ data on votes cast, should be cross-verified with the VVPATs.\n<ul>\n<li>The petition (along with other petitions) seeks <strong>100% verification<\/strong> of votes cast on EVMs using the VVPAT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>To make sure that this process is carried out as fast as possible, <strong>ADR suggested the use of barcodes on VVPAT slips.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What has SC Ruled in the VVPAT-EVM Tally Case?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The SC <strong>rejected the demand for 100% verification<\/strong> of <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/vvpat-machine-in-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\">VVPATs in Indian elections<\/a> and <strong>also rejected a return to the earlier ballot paper system for elections, <\/strong>thus reposing faith in the electoral process.<\/li>\n<li>However, the court issued <strong>two directions and some suggestions <\/strong>to the ECI in this regard, attempting to ensure that India\u2019s electoral process remains full proof.<\/li>\n<li><strong>First direction:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In a first, the court gave directions to the ECI<strong> to seal and store the symbol loading units (SLUs) <\/strong>for 45 days after declaration of results.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SLUs <\/strong>are memory units that are first connected to a computer to load election symbols onto it, and then used to enter symbols of the candidates on the VVPAT machines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second direction:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The SC has<strong> enabled candidates to seek verification of the EVMs<\/strong> &#8211; again a first.<\/li>\n<li>The burnt memory in the EVM microcontroller must be checked by a team of engineers &#8211; after results are declared &#8211; if candidates (placed 2nd and 3rd in the election) make such a request <strong>within 7 days of declaration of results<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The expenses for this verification will have to be borne by the candidate <\/strong>and which would be refunded in case the EVM is found to be tampered with<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Suggestion on VVPAT:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The ECI may examine the suggestion that <strong>VVPAT slips can be counted using a counting machine<\/strong>, rather than by humans.<\/li>\n<li>VVPAT slips could have a <strong>barcode <\/strong>printed on them, making it easier for machine counting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. How do EVMs work?<\/h3>\n<p>An EVM has two units &#8211; the control unit and the balloting unit. These are connected by a cable. The EVM&#8217;s control unit is with the presiding officer, also known as polling officer. The balloting unit is kept in the voting compartment, where people cast their votes.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What were VVPATs introduced?<\/h3>\n<p>The Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) allows the voter to cross-check whether his\/her vote was cast properly and went to the right candidate or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SC rejected the demand for 100% verification of VVPATs in Indian elections and also rejected a return to the earlier ballot paper system for elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}