April 18, 2024: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the poll body to explain in detail the steps followed to ensure free and fair polls.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta said, "This is (an) electoral process. There has to be sanctity. Let nobody have apprehension that something which is expected is not being done".

The VVPAT - Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail - enables a voter to see if the vote was cast properly and went to the candidate he/she supports. The VVPAT generates a paper slip that is kept in a sealed cover and can be opened if there is a dispute.

 The court is hearing petitions seeking cross-verification of votes cast on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with paper slips generated through the VVPAT system. Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, the poll body's counsel, and poll officials are in the court to respond to the questions.

In explanation, the poll body said the EVM's control unit commands the VVPAT unit to print its paper slip. This slip is visible to the voter for seven seconds before it falls into a sealed box, Mr Singh said. The machines are checked before polling in the presence of engineers, it added.

When the court asked if there was any software in the VVPAT printer, the poll body replied in the negative. But when the court asked how many Symbol Loading Units are created for the polling, a poll body official replied, "Normally one in a constituency. It's in custody of Returning Officer till conclusion of poll." The court then asked if this unit is sealed to ensure no tampering, the Election Commission replied that no such process is currently in place.

The Election Commission also told the court that all voting machines pass through the mock poll process.

On asking how a voter can check if his/her vote has been cast, the official replied that the poll body gives demonstrations and runs awareness programmes for this. The Election Commission also said that voting machines get allocated to constituencies randomly.