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Synopsis

The Election Commission of India on Thursday submitted before the Supreme Court that the allegation that the BJP candidate got extra votes during the mock polls in the Kasargod district of Kerala was "totally false".

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, while hearing a plea by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, told senior counsel Maninder Singh to look into the issue raised by advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the petitioner.

Bhushan cited a news report that during the mock poll four EVMs and VVPATs recorded one extra vote for BJP.

The court asked Singh to cross-check the matter.

The bench was hearing submissions by the Deputy Election Commissioner to understand the process of voting through EVMs and the use of VVPATs.

In the afternoon session, the EC official submitted before the bench that the news report was checked and found to be false.

On April 16, 2024, the court had expressed serious reservations over the use of ballot papers or 100% counting of VVPATs during the elections in the country.

"Fortunately, we have not forgotten what we saw in the 60s," the bench had said.

"We don't want to go into it. We all know the drawbacks of the system of ballot papers," the bench had added.

A batch of PILs including one by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms sought a direction for increasing the VVPAT counts "in order to restore confidence of the voters".

Case Title: Association for Democratic Reforms Vs Election Commission of India & Ors