Delhi HC issues notice to ECI, state election commission on AAP plea seeks to conduct MCD poll through EVM with VVPATs

New Delhi [India], March 24 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Delhi State Election commission on a plea moved by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seeking the court's direction to conduct the upcoming elections for the Municipal Corporations of Delhi with electronic voting machines (EVMs) which are compatible with Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
The bench of Justice Rekha Palli on Thursday sought the response of ECI and Delhi State Election Commission and asked them to file an affidavit with detail and makes clear whether M-2 EVM is compatible with the VVPAT or not.
Court also noted the different stands of ECI and State Election commission where ECI said M-2 EVM is incompatible with VVPAT and on the other hand state election commission said M-2 EVM is compatible with the VVPAT system.
While opposing the petition of AAP, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appearing for the Election commission of India submitted that the petition is non-maintainable at all and is providing M-2 EVM to the state commission as per the demand.
Each state election commission must be aware that they have to make available their own infrastructure, ECI counsel said.
Appearing for Petitioner, senior advocate Rahul Mehra showed displeasure with respondents for their contradictory stand. He submitted that MCD elections are around and the state election commission has not developed its own infrastructure despite there is Supreme Court's direction of 2014 are very much clear in this regard.
The bench after hearing all the submissions renotify the matter for April 7, 2022.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has recently moved Delhi High Court seeking court's direction to State Election Commission, Delhi not to conduct the upcoming elections for the Municipal Corporations of Delhi with M-2 EVMs without VVPAT and use such EVMs instead which are compatible with VVPAT.
The Petitioner AAP through its MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj stated that the EVMs without the VVPAT machines make it almost impossible to ascertain the accuracy of the machines and rule out any tampering, the plea read.
The use of the old M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is in contravention of the express directions issued by the Supreme Court in the Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission case which emphatically recognized that the incorporation and implementation of a system of paper trail in EVMs is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections, stated the plea.
Petitioner is aggrieved by the response from State Election Commission (Delhi) on March 7 which stated that the Delhi Municipal Elections 2022 will be held using M-2 EVMs without VVPAT, said the plea.
The decision to conduct the 2022 MCD Election using M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is wholly illegal, arbitrary, perverse, whimsical, and amounts to a colourable exercise of power, read the petition.