The Supreme Court of India has stated that it does not have the authority to control elections or the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The court made this statement in response to a petition filed by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which had requested a reversal of the ECI's 2017 decision to replace the transparent glass on VVPAT machines with an opaque one.
The ADR had also advocated for matching the count in EVMs with votes recorded as cast and ensuring that voters can verify through the VVPAT slip that their vote has been accurately tallied. However, the Supreme Court cautioned petitioners against doubting the effectiveness of EVMs and acknowledged the efforts of the ECI.
The court also emphasized the importance of voter satisfaction and trust in the electoral process. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing the ECI, argued that EVMs are standalone machines and are not susceptible to tampering, although the possibility of human error cannot be dismissed.
The Supreme Court has also criticized the criticism of EVMs and calls for a return to ballot papers, stressing that the electoral process in India is a monumental task and efforts should not be made to undermine the system. VVPAT slips are an integral part of the EVMs used in elections and provide a physical paper trail for voters to verify that their vote has been correctly recorded by the EVM.