After agreeing, Supreme Court declines urgent hearing on VVPAT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed and then refused urgent hearing on a PIL seeking increase in the number of booths for EVM-VVPAT verification from five per constituency, as mandated by the apex court in 2019, to 25 or more for the March 10 counting of votes in five states.
At 10.30 am, one Rakesh Kumar, claiming to be a social and RTI activist, sought urgent hearing on his PIL and requested expansion of the SC's April 18, 2019 directions for VVPAT verification on a PIL filed by TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu and many other non-BJP leaders including Sharad Pawar, Derek O'Brien, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, M K Stalin and Farooq Abdullah.
On mention by senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli asked the petition to be served on the Election Commission and kept it for preliminary hearing at 2 pm.
In the afternoon, senior advocate Maninder Singh said the EC is following the SC-mandated VVPAT verification process scrupulously and that the same cannot be changed just two days before counting. "Through a fresh writ petition, the issue cannot be reopened. The courts are also barred from interfering mid-way in an ongoing election process. So, the petition is not maintainable. If the SC wants to examine the petition, it can be taken up only after March 10, when the counting process will get over," he said. The SC agreed.
The petitioner's counsel said there is a new prayer for carrying out the VVPAT verification process at the beginning and during the middle of the counting process instead of the present practice of doing it at the end of the counting, when most of the election agents generally leave the counting centres.
The CJI-led bench said, "If you are a polling agent, you are expected to remain present till the completion of counting. If you go away mid-way, it is your problem. In any election, each and every round has the potential to change the trend. If you think you will stay only when you are winning, then that is your problem. What can the EC do?"
Reversing the morning's tentative decision for a hearing on Wednesday, the CJI said, "We cannot interfere till March 10. Let the counting go on as per the established practice, procedure and law. EC says it is following the judgment. The petition can be heard later."
In its 2019 judgement, the SC had said, "Tthe number of EVMs that would now be subjected to verification so far as VVPAT paper trail is concerned would be 5 booths per assembly constituency" (instead of one as stipulated in the Rules of EC).