New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the Election Commission (EC) to inform whether VVPAT system can be used only with M-3 EVMs and if they can be made available to Delhi State Election Commission for conducting the municipal elections.

The court asked the counsel for EC to seek instructions on the issue and also asked its officers concerned to be present before on March 24 for assisting it.

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“The counsel for EC shall seek instruction as to whether VVPAT can be used only with M-3 EVMs and if they can be made available to Delhi State EC and in how much time,” Justice Rekha Palli said.

The high court was hearing a petition by the Aam Aadmi Party, through MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, seeking direction to the State Election Commission of Delhi to conduct the upcoming MCD polls with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which are compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and not without them.

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The court's order came after the counsel for State EC submitted that VVPAT is used only in General elections and Legislative Assembly polls and as a matter of policy, the EC is using M-2 EVMs Pan India for municipal polls.

While M-2 EVM stands for 2nd generation Electronic Voting Machines, M-3 is 3rd generation Electronic Voting Machines.

Advocate Sumeet Pushkarna, representing the State EC, said they are dependent on availability of machines and if the EC gives them VVPAT compatible EVM, they can use it in municipal polls.

He said since M-2 EVMs are used Pan-India, no questions can be raised on their legitimacy.

Advocate Suruchi Suri, appearing for the EC, said there is a procedure to be followed to ask for VVPAT compatible machines and they have not received any such request.

To this, the court said, “This is interesting. One body comes and says if EC gives it, we can use it. Then EC comes and says we have not been approached by them.”

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing AAP, said if the machines are available, they shall be given for conducting fair municipal elections in Delhi and if the machines are not available then it is a different issue.

The high court had earlier asked the counsel for State EC to take instructions as to why EVMs with VVPAT cannot be used for the upcoming elections of municipal corporations of Delhi (MCD).

The petitioner party, in the plea filed through advocate Rakesh Kumar Sinha, said the EVMs without VVPAT machines make it almost impossible to ascertain the accuracy of the machines and rule out any tampering.

“The use of the old M-2 EVMs without VVPAT are in contravention of the express directions issued by the Supreme Court in Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India, (2013), which emphatically recognised that the incorporation and implementation of a system of paper trail in EVMs is an indispensable requirement of a free and fair elections,” the plea said.

It alleged that the decision of the State EC to hold the MCD Elections 2022 with M-2 EVMs without VVPAT is manifestly wrong and amounts to a colourable exercise of power.

This raises genuine apprehension about the sanctity of the entire electoral process, it said, adding that this decision has been conveyed in the reply to the party's March 2, 2022 representation made to the authorities to use the EVMs compatible with the VVPATs.

“As such the respondent no. 1 (State EC) has apparently violated the constitutional guarantee of elections being free, fair and impartial,” it alleged.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)