slips Representative Image – Representative Image New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to refer a PIL seeking time-stamping of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) – a paper slip that matches the votes cast in EVMs – to the Election Commission to examine its technical feasibility, while clarifying that the issue was in the policy area of ​​the poll panel. Senior advocates Devdutt Kamat and Amit Rawal, appearing for petitioner N Suresh Reddy, a Telangana-based businessman, told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that it has been granted.

Kamat said that despite the frequent occurrence of last-minute surge in voting, time-stamping of VVPATs will ensure transparency and fairness in the elections. The EVMS should be able to print the exact time of voting on the VVPAT without the voter revealing his identity. The bench said that since it falls within the policy area of ​​the Election Commission and involves examination of technical feasibility aspects, it would be better if the Commission examines the issue.

Kamat said that many reforms related to elections and voting were implemented on the orders of or on the orders of the Supreme Court. But the bench said that since the petitioner has never given any representation to the Election Commission on this issue, it would be better if the Commission investigates it thoroughly.

The petitioner further said that he is not demanding withdrawal of paper ballots or 100% counting of VVPAT slips and is not questioning the results of any election. He said he is demanding an additional audit feature on VVPAT slips, namely time-stamping on every slip.