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A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and consisting of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli today agreed to hear on Wednesday, a plea seeking verification of Voter Verified Paper Audit trail (VVPAT) of EVMs before counting of votes.

Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the plea before the bench and submitted that verification of VVPAT is done after counting is over and by that time the election agents leave owing to which there is no transparency. Therefore, pressing the need of transparency in the counting process, she further submitted that it won’t be of any use if verification is done after counting is over.

To this, CJI Ramana questioned Arora as to why this matter was being mentioned a day before the counting of votes is to take place. To be noted, The vote counting of the Assembly Elections in five states is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 10.

CJI Ramana also remarked that even if the is heard tomorrow, would the court be able to issue direction to all States. Arora, however, insisted and submitted that the Election Commission can be informed and asked to follow the directions.

Thereafter, Court directed the Election Commission of India to be present tomorrow and agreed to list it for hearing. CJI remarked, “Let us see what can be done.”