Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct 9: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition submitted by the Delhi Congress that contested the actions of the State Election Commission concerning the “First Level Checking” of EVMs and VVPATs ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
A panel comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra affirmed the guidelines of the Election Commission on this matter and indicated that they will not interfere with the decision of the Delhi High Court concerning it.
The Delhi High Court rejected the plea of Anil Kumar Kumar, a member of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), last month. Subsequently, Kumar sought to challenge the High Court’s decision by approaching the Supreme Court.
The CJI mentioned during the hearing that whereas other political parties actively participated in the First Level Checking (FLC), the DPCC chose not to.
“DPCC stayed away from the proceedings, all other political parties participated. Now interfering in this would delay the entire election schedule,” the Supreme Court said.
The judges stated that if the court got involved right away, the elections would be severely delayed. In response to the bench saying, “We don’t want to enter into this,” Kumar’s attorney withdrew the plea.
“The process is very detailed, parties have faith in EVM and it is replicated all across India,” said the CJI.
The petition alleged that the process employed to initiate the First Level Checking (FLC) was not transparent and deviated from the Election Commission of India’s directives.
