The Delhi High Court on Friday declined to entertain a plea challenging the “conduct” of the State Election Commission in relation to the first level checking (FLC) of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) ahead of the upcoming general election.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula observed that the public interest litigation (PIL) was directed against the State Election Commission (SEC) when it had “nothing to do with it”.
The FLC of EVMs and VVPATs involves cleaning, inspection, functionality checks, and loading of party symbols.
In his PIL, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Kumar submitted that sufficient notices were not given for carrying out the FLC and, hence, political parties could not prepare themselves for the process.
He sought for a direction to the SEC to re-convene the FLC after giving sufficient notice.
The petition alleged that the entire procedure followed for the commencement of FLC last month was not transparent and contrary to the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“The State Election Commission, without giving sufficient time, contrary to the instructions dated August 30, 2017, and September 13, 2022, preponed the entire FLC process by three months contrary to the instruction which was in public knowledge and made the stakeholder political parties a silent spectator to the entire process of FLC,” the petition said.
Pointing out that the election officials were working for the ECI, the High Court refused to entertain the plea.
“The petitioner prays for withdrawal of the petition with a liberty to file a fresh PIL. The petition is dismissed as withdrawn with the said liberty,” it ordered.
