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The review petitioner had submitted that there were mistakes and errors apparent on the face of the impugned order
The Supreme Court has declined to reconsider its April 26, 2024 judgment which rejected a plea for 100% cross verification of EVM-VVPAT counts or return of the previous ballot system in elections.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta dismissed the review petition filed by advocate Arun Kumar Agrawal.
"We have carefully perused the review petition, as also the grounds in support thereof. In our opinion, no case for review of the judgment dated 26.04.2024 is made out.The review petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the bench said.
The order was passed on July 25, after the review petition was considered in judges chambers as per SC Rules.
The review petition filed in May this year raised issues of (i) Feasibility of counting of all VVPAT paper slips in terms of time to be taken and additional manpower, (ii) Vulnerability of SLU (iii) Percentage of VVPAT slips counted for tallying with EVM votes after Chandrababu Naidu [(2019) 15 SCC 377] judgment.
The plea said the counting of all VVPAT slips can be done accurately with a fraction of the employees and at a fraction of cost and within 5 to 8 hrs.
"...electronic voting machines do not allow voters to verify that their votes have been accurately recorded. Furthermore, given their very nature, electronic voting machines are especially vulnerable to malicious changes by insiders such as designers, programmers, manufacturers, maintenance technicians, etc...", the petition adds.
In the impugned judgment, Supreme Court of India had held EVMs to be simple, secure and user-friendly. Furthermore, EVMs reduce paper usage and alleviate logistical challenges, the court had said.
Justice Dipankar Datta is a separate but concurring judgment has also noted that there has been a trend in the recent years fast developing of certain vested interest groups endeavouring to undermine the achievements and accomplishments of the nation, earned through the hard work and dedication of its sincere workforce.
He also slammed vested groups for attempt to discredit the system of voting through the EVMs and thereby derail the electoral process, that is underway, by creating unnecessary doubts in the minds of the electorate.
Case Title: ARUN KUMAR AGRAWAL vs, ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA AND ANR.
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