Supreme Court to hear VVPAT review petition today, 20 Opposition leaders likely to be present

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a petition to review its judgment rejecting physical verification of 50 percent electronic voting machines using the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).

VVPAT Machine

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a petition to review its judgment rejecting physical verification of 50 percent electronic voting machines using the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). As per reports, Opposition leaders like Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, CPI(M)’s T K Rangarajan and Nilotpal Basu and CPI’s D Raja among others would be present when the review petition will be heard. The petition has been signed by at least 21 Opposition parties’ leaders which includes Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Sharad Pawar, K C Venugopal, Derek O’Brien, Sharad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Satish Chandra Mishra, M K Stalin, T K Rangarajan, Manoj K Jha, Farooq Abdullah, S S Reddy, Danish Ali, Ajit Singh, Mohd Badruddin Ajmal and Jitin Ram Majhi. The leaders of the Opposition are likely to meet to take stock of the situation after the apex court’s proceedings. The Supreme Court on May 3 had agreed to consider the plea while the Election Commission (EC) had opposed the plea, saying it would take nearly six days to complete the counting of votes. Opposition leaders had said in their review petition, “Till now, the credibility of EVMs was not the main issue. However, due to subsequent developments, it has been seriously called into question. The number of EVMs to be randomly checked against VVPAT deserved to be increased.” Reportedly, the petitioners had claimed that 2% increase brought in by the court was not sufficient and would not make substantial or meaningful change in the situation.