The Supreme Court on Friday rejected all the petitions seeking the complete verification of votes cast using Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. A two-judge bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta delivered the verdict.

During the hearing, the bench said that it gave the Election Commission of India (ECI) two directions.

"Blindly distrusting a system can lead to unwarranted suspicions," Justice Datta said, adding, "democracy is all about maintaining harmony and trust among all the pillars".

Presently, VVPAT verification is done only in five randomly selected EVMs in each Assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency.

Source: India Today