
In a major set back to the Congress party, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed their plea seeking directions to the Election Commission to count and cross verify at least 25 per cent of paper trails generated by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines with the actual vote tally in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Just three days prior to the counting of votes for held Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress party had today approached the apex court demanding cross-verification.
Senior lawyers and Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal had appeared for the Congress in this regard.
The plea was submitted just a day after the second and final phase of polling concluded in the Gujarat assembly polls.
This year in July, the EC had made it mandatory to verify the paper trail slips with the results of EVMs in 5 per cent of polling stations in each assembly seat, for all state and Lok Sabha elections.
VVPAT machines were inducted to generate a printed slip confirming the voter's choice when he voted on an EVM.