The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by a 78-year-old bedridden woman to have her vote cast through postal ballot in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections. During the hearing, Justice Bela Trivedi-led bench of the top court rejected the plea by the woman seeking directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to exercise her franchise through postal ballot.
SC rejects pleas to revive paper ballots
Earlier in April, the apex court had rejected pleas for reviving paper ballots and also 100 per cent cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs with a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), holding that suspicions regarding tampering of the voting machines were “unfounded”.
Weighing in on the intensely debated EVM issue that has long divided political parties, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said the plea for return to the ballot paper system was "foible and unsound", noting that the weakness of this system was well known and documented. The two judges gave two separate but concurring verdicts.
During the hearing, the bench sought answers to certain technical queries linked to the functioning of EVMs, including whether the microcontrollers fitted in them are reprogrammable. Upon the court's listing of the queries, the ECI sought detailed clarifications. On the security feature, the ECI asserted that the EVMs cannot be tampered with in any circumstance and that the complete counting of the VVPAT slips was not practically possible.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024
The Lok Sabha elections are currently underway across the country. With four phases of the polling process already completed, the nation is casting its votes today in the fifth phase. This multi-phase electoral process is crucial for determining the composition of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament. The ongoing voting period has seen significant voter turnout and participation, reflecting the democratic spirit of the nation as citizens from various regions exercise their right to vote.
(With inputs from agencies)
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