Eight Legal Challenges Filed in Supreme Court & High Courts for VVPAT and EVM Vote Verification in 2024
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New Delhi, Dec 13 (NationPress) A total of eight legal challenges have been lodged in 2024 concerning the verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail unit (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes in the Supreme Court and multiple High Courts, as informed to Parliament on Friday.
Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, stated in the Lok Sabha that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has conveyed that following the counting of votes, a mandatory verification of VVPAT slips from five randomly chosen polling stations per Assembly constituency/segment is executed, as per the Supreme Court directive dated April 8, 2019, in the case of N. Chandrababu Naidu versus Union of India.
The Minister of State clarified that no deposit is necessary for this mandatory verification. The ECI further indicated that this verification has been conducted in all elections held in 2024.
In response to another inquiry regarding the assessment system for government attorneys and those on the government panel, MoS Meghwal mentioned that there exists an In-charge litigation system for all courts/tribunals nationwide, which submits monthly reports concerning case allocations and the performance of Panel Counsel to the Department of Legal Affairs.
Moreover, feedback and complaints received from various ministries/departments regarding panel counsel performance are thoroughly reviewed, and any identified misconduct leads to the removal of the counsel from the panel.
Addressing a query about establishing an online platform for government agencies to upload pertinent data related to each government case, he stated that the Department of Legal Affairs initiated the Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) in February 2016. This web-based application serves to monitor all court cases involving the Union of India.
LIMBS is innovative, user-friendly, and available 24/7 to various ministries/departments of the Government of India, along with its organizations, Law Officers, and empaneled Counsels, allowing them to upload case-related data pertinent to the Union of India.
