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The Commission filed an affidavit before the Nagpur bench of the High Court opposing the petition filed by Congress leader Praful Gudade challenging its decision not to use VVPAT in the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra.
Election Commission
Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Election Commission on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that the use of VVPAT machines for local body elections is not mandatory and is not technically feasible. The Commission's response came in response to a petition filed by Congress leader Praful Gudade in the Nagpur bench of the High Court challenging its decision not to use VVPAT in the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra.
The Commission filed an affidavit before the Nagpur bench of the High Court opposing the petition filed by Congress leader Praful Gudade challenging its decision not to use VVPAT in the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra.
Gudade argued in his petition that the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system is essential for a transparent election process. During the hearing on Wednesday, a bench headed by Justice Anil Kilor sought to know the reason for not using VVPAT machines, especially since the Supreme Court had stated in its decision that their use is mandatory.
The Commission explained why VVPATs cannot be used.
The Commission's lawyer told the court that the Supreme Court's decision applies only to general elections, not local body elections. He pointed out that VVPAT machines were not used even in the 2017 municipal elections. The Commission stated in its affidavit that the use of VVPATs is not mandatory in the local body acts governing municipal elections.
It stated that there are also issues regarding the technical feasibility of designing and manufacturing VVPAT machines, which can be used for multi-member and multi-post EVMs. The affidavit states that parliamentary and assembly elections are single-member, single-post elections, where only one candidate is chosen by the voter, and the EVMs used by the Election Commission are specifically designed for this purpose. It states that gram panchayats, municipal councils, and municipal corporations are multi-member, multi-post constituencies.
Petition Demand
The bench scheduled the next hearing of the case for Thursday. The first round of local body elections in Maharashtra will be held on December 2. In his petition, filed through advocates Pawan Dahat and Nihal Singh Rathod, Gudadhe said that if the SEC is not going to use VVPAT, then the elections should be conducted through ballot papers. VVPAT is an independent system linked to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) that allows voters to verify that their vote has been cast as intended.
