Supreme Court rejects plea to reintroduce ballot papers in polls

way2barak, November 27 The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider a plea for reintroduction of the paper ballot voting system in elections, besides several other electoral reforms.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B Varale told the petitioner that it is not keen to entertain the petition.

“What happens is, if you win the elections, EVMs are not tampered. When you lose elections, EVMs are tampered,” the bench observed.

Petitioner evangelist Dr K A Paul, appearing in-person, insisted that the issue raised before the court is very important.

“When Chandrababu Naidu or Mr Reddy lost, they say that EVMs are tampered when they won, they don’t say anything” the bench observed, asking the petitioner as to how he sees this scenario.

The petitioner insisted that EVMs can be tampered. He claimed he had got the support of over 180 retired IAS/IPS officers and former judges.

He also pointed out that several foreign countries are using paper ballots. He submitted that India should follow the practices of countries like the United States which use physical ballots.

The bench, however, asked, “Why should we follow other countries?”