Observing that “election process cannot be interefered with at eleventh hour”, the Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed the petition moved by AAP and one of its candidates for use of EVMs with paper trails in the upcoming MCD polls.
“In my view, it would not be possible to give any such direction to use EVMs with VVPAT at 11th hour,” said Justice A.K. Pathak.
“Any such direction would amount to interfering with the election process,” he added.
The court passed the order after hearing hour-long arguments on petition moved by Mohd Tahir Hussain, AAP's candidate for the MCD polls from Nehru Vihar ward and also the party itself as Petitioner no. 2.
The petition had urged that the State Election Commission be directed to use Voter Verified Paper Trail enabled generation 2 EVM machines for a free and fair election.
The bench was, however, in agreement with the submission of Sumeet Pushkarna, the counsel for State Election Commission that the Supreme Court has ruled against courts interfering in the election process once the elections have been notified.
Mr Pushkarna also said that the party in power has come to court when elections are just three days away on unsubstantiated apprehension that the EVMs can be tampered with.
He said the term of the House (MCD) is over and new House has to be in place by April 30 and the petitioner is trying to delay the elections covertly.
