AAP's plea dismissed ahead of MCD polls, HC rejects use of VVPAT EVMs

The Delhi High Court dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) plea on Friday for the use of paper trail voting machines in the municipal polls scheduled on April 23, saying it cannot pass such an order at the last minute.

Justice AK Pathak said an order for use of VVPAT (Voter-verified paper audit trail)-enabled Generation 2 or Generation 3 electronic voting machines (EVBMs) cannot be issued at the eleventh hour as it would amount to stalling the election process.

The plea, filed by the AAP as also by Mohd Tahir Hussain who is a candidate in the MCD elections, has contended that the EVMs to be used in the polls were obsolete and open to tampering.

During the arguments before dismissing the plea, the court asked the state election commission of Delhi why it did not opt for VVPAT EVMs in view of the Supreme Court's observation in Subramanian Swamy's case that such machines should be brought into use in a phased manner.

In its arguments, the Delhi poll panel said the question raised by the AAP on the use of EVMs in the MCD polls was sending a wrong message to the voters.