In a big setback to opposition parties, the Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed the plea filed by 21 Opposition leaders seeking a review of its April 8 order directing the Election Commission to increase random matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs to five polling booths per assembly segment. "We are not inclined to modify our order," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said. The plea was filed by opposition leaders led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The apex court had on April 8 directed the Election Commission to increase random matching of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in five polling booths per assembly segment from one booth. The top court , however, had not agreed to the demand of 21 Opposition leaders for counting of at least 50 percent of VVPAT slips with EVMs in every assembly segment.

Source: Economic Times May 07, 2019 05:41 UTC