SC asks EC to explore Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail in EVMs

Senior advocates Ashok Desai and Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the Election Commission, said VVPAT can be introduced in a phased manner and cited the administrative and financial reasons for it.

They said approximately Rs 1500 crore would be required for procuring VVPAT for installing it at all polling booths across the country for the Lok Sabha polls and there are only two state-owned companies- Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL)- which manufacture the machines.

"The Election Commission has written to the Centre for administrative and financial requirement for VVPAT. We have sought ten thousand machines from each of the two companies. The machines have to be introduced in a phased manner and gradual style to cover one million polling booths," they said.