‘Necessary steps at appropriate time’: Dinesh Rao hails SC ruling on VVPAT slips

BENGALURU: Health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Wednesday hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the plea seeking counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections.

“I welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to issue notice to the ECI in response to our petition seeking the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections, instead of verifying only 5 randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency”, Dinesh Rao said in a post on X.

“The judiciary is taking the necessary steps at the appropriate time, and we have faith that the Constitution will be upheld regardless of the circumstances,” he added.

I welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's decision to issue notice to the ECI in response to our petition seeking the counting of all Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) paper slips in elections, instead of verifying only 5 randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment of a…

— Dinesh Gundu Rao/ದಿನೇಶ್ ಗುಂಡೂರಾವ್ (@dineshgrao) April 3, 2024

The Congress leader accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government of repeatedly attempting to ‘subvert democracy’.

“Modi government has repeatedly attempted, through various means, to subvert democracy and undermine free and fair elections nationwide. But as long as the pillars of democracy stand strong, this move won’t serve the interests of the dictatorial government”, he said.

The state minister then appealed to the court for a ‘timely resolution’ on the petition before the upcoming elections.
“A timely resolution to this matter before the onset of elections is required for this petition to truly carry weight. #SupremeCourt #VVPAT”, Dinesh Rao added.

The apex court earlier on Monday issued notice to the Election Commission of India and the Centre on the petition seeking the counting of all VVPAT slips instead of the verification of only five randomly selected Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.

The petition filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Agrawal further challenged ECI’s guideline that mandates that VVPAT verification shall be done sequentially, i.e. one after the other, causing undue delay.

It sought direction that the ECI mandatorily cross-verify the count in EVMs with votes that have been verifiably ‘recorded as cast’ by the voter through the VVPATs by counting all VVPAT paper slips. (ANI)