The Supreme Court has rejected the petition of former Delhi Pradesh Congress President Anil Kumar demanding re-conduct of the first level check of EVM-VVPAT before the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. The Supreme Court, while hearing the petition, said that Congress did not participate in the process when called by the Election Commission.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra noted that the DPCC chose not to participate in the FLC, while other political parties actively took part.
"DPCC stayed away from the proceedings, all other political parties participated. now interfering in this would delay the entire election schedule," CJI Chandrachud said.
The Congress party in Delhi had challenged the conduct of the State Election Commission regarding the first level checking of EVMs and VVPATs ahead of the upcoming general elections. The top court said that the process is detailed and the parties have confidence in it. The court said that this process has been repeated all over India. It is known that earlier Delhi High Court had also rejected the petition.
During the proceedings before the Supreme Court, the petitioner contended that it was only the Delhi Congress that had stepped forward during the FLC process.
"When EVM machines are dispatched from the warehouse of concerned DM, they prepare list of unique identity of each machines. What happens on the way no one knows, and it is received in Delhi warehouse and there is no tally on numbers sent and ones they recieve. They want us to accept that all machines are in the FLC halls," he said.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) stated that the High Court had reviewed the procedure and highlighted that the participation of political parties was just a single aspect of the process. The CJI emphasized that the non-participation of certain parties should not lead to a complete halt in the entire process.
The petitioner clarified that their intention was not to contest the process after its conclusion.
"Sorry, the process is very detailed, parties have faith in EVM and it is replicated all across India," he said.
Accordingly, the petitioner withdrew the plea.
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