New Delhi, May 7:The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by 21 opposition party leaders seeking review of its verdict on VVPAT slips counting.”We are not inclined,” said a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi while refusing to review its verdict increasing random VVPAT slip verification with one EVM result in only one assembly segment in each parliamentary constituency to five EVMs in five assembly segments in each parliamentary constituency.
Several opposition leaders, including Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, and CPI leader D Raja were present in CJI’s court for the hearing, which barely lasted for a few minutes.The top court had earlier prevailed over the Election Commission to increase VVPAT verification.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that the petitioners had asked for 50 per cent random physical verification of VVPAT slips.
“We can settle for 33 per cent or 25 per cent verification,” said Singhvi.
“We are not inclined to review our order, said the CJI dismissing the opposition leaders’ review petition.
The opposition leaders wanted the top court to order to increase verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail(VVPAT) to 50 per cent of the EVMs for the ongoing elections to 17th Lok Sabha.
