New Delhi: The Election Commission has told Supreme Court that there is no need to increase VVPAT count as it will delay counting at least by six days.
The court had asked EC to file an affidavit on why physical check of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) should not be extended to more than one polling station per Assembly segment in a Lok Sabha seat.
Furnishing a reply, the Commission told the court that manual matching of VVPAT with EVMs is also prone to human errors.
The court was hearing a plea filed by 21 opposition leaders led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, seeking a random count of VVPAT slips of at least 50 per cent EVMs in each Assembly constituency before the declaration of Lok Sabha election results.
The petition has also challenged the decision of the Commission to check VVPATs of only one randomly selected booth of a constituency. The petitioners have said that this will account only for 0.44 per cent of the votes polled.
This guideline defeats the entire purpose of the VVPAT and makes the same "ornamental" without actual substance, they have said.
The plea was coordinated by Naidu who was joined by several other leaders including Sharad Pawar NCP), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Sharad Yadav (LJD), Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Derek O'Brien (TMC), MK Stalin (DMK) and Farooq Abdullah (NC).
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