The Delhi High Court has allowed the AAP government's plea seeking release of 410 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, which were earlier ordered to be sealed in connection with a petition filed by a BJP leader seeking setting aside of the AAP MLA's election from Delhi Cantt.
VVPAT is a method of providing feedback to the voters using a ballotless voting system which is intended to be an independent verification system for voting machines designed to detect any possible election fraud or malfunction.
Justice Hima Kohli's direction came on an application moved by the Delhi government which had contended that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked it to handover the VVPAT machines for using these in the present round of Assembly elections.
Earlier, the high court had ordered preservation of VVPAT machines after BJP leader Karan Singh Tanwar had sought setting aside of AAP MLA Surender Singh's election from Delhi Cantt Assembly constituency alleging that he had furnished wrong declaration of his educational qualification in nomination paper filed during the 2015 Assembly polls. The matter is still pending.
In its application, filed through advocate Anuj Aggarwal, the government told the court that the printed paper slips of VVPAT machines, used during Assembly election in Delhi Cantt, do not have any records as the paper trails of these machines have already been preserved in sealed boxes as per ECI's procedure and no useful purpose would be served by retaining these.
Taking note of this, the court said, "For the reasons stated in the application, the same is allowed. The applicant is permitted to open the locks of the strong room at Police Training College, Jharoda Kalan, Delhi and remove all VVPAT machines lying preserved there, subject to the condition that the printed paper trail of the said machines shall continue to be preserved and stored in sealed boxes, as per the procedure prescribed by ECI, till further orders."
The court also said that the Delhi government would intimate the parties, including Tanwar, before removing the machines.
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