Supreme Court declines plea for using ballot paper instead of EVM for polls

On Thursday, the CJI- led Supreme Court bench declined a plea seeking direction to EC to conduct assembly elections and Lok Sabha polls next year using ballot papers instead of EVM.

The said plea was moved to the apex court expressing doubts over how full proof the EVM process is. The Supreme Court, however, has denied to upset the status quo.

Now, all state and general elections are held with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Is is believed that many opposition parties have expressed doubt over reliability of EVMs and have alleged that they are not tamper-proof. But the matter-of-fact that many EVMs have malfunctioned during the polling in Chhattisgarh elections have added weight to their demands.

The CJI on Thursday budged to refuse from its verdict and said every machine is capable of being used and misused and doubts will be there with every system, and the bench ruled that current system is satisfactory.

Mahuya Maitra- the petitioner and TMC leader, had expressed concerns that UIDAI is using Aadhaar to spy on people. The top court has given her two weeks to furnish proof to support her claims. However, UIDAI has strongly denied such allegations.

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