The Supreme Court of India is scheduled to deliver its verdict on petitions seeking 100% verification of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The judgement will be pronounced by a bench comprising Justices Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Dutta at approximately 10:30 am.
The petitions, filed by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and other organizations, allege that EVMs can be manipulated to influence election results. During a hearing on April 24, the Supreme Court had observed that it cannot "control elections" or issue directives based solely on doubts about the efficacy of polling machines.
In a separate development, the Indian government has reportedly requested French authorities to approve the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya "without preconditions". This request was made during the 16th meeting of the India-France Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism, held on April 15.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has listed for hearing in August petitions filed by WhatsApp and Meta challenging a provision of the 2021 Information Technology Rules for social media intermediaries. The provision in question requires these platforms to identify the first originator of information, upon a court order or an order from a competent authority.