Voters should get a reciept after voting

Why shouldn’t a voter get receipt of the choice of a candidate for whom he has voted through an electronic machine? This million dollar question has been put to the Supreme Court.

It has asked the Election Commission file its response within a month.

A bench headed by chief justice SH Kapadia on Monday asked the Commission to take a call on the representation made by a Shiv Sena activist Rajendra Satyanarayan Gilda who wants modification in the EVM so that a voter could check that his vote has not been cast in wrong way and he could get an acknowledgement slip after casting vote. Gilda said that the Commission has failed to take any decision on his representation.

His lawyer RR Deshpande said that a voter has the right to know that his vote has gone in favour of the candidate of his choice and this facility is not available in EVMs.

“Right to vote includes right to know or right to verify that to whom the vote was given has really gone or whether it is rightly gone in favour of the candidate to whom it was intended by the voters,” he said.

To make this right effective, he said, a voter must be provided with an acknowledgement slip. A voter presses a button only but cannot ascertain whether his vote has been cast.

He is not sure that whether his vote is recorded or not, if recorded whether it is recorded in favour of the person of his choice? Whether it is valid or invalid and whether it is counted or not? Gilda’s petition said.