A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha, closed a contempt petition filed against the Election Commission of India (EC) by the Backward & Minority Community Employees Federation (BAMCEF). BAMCEF had filed the petition alleging that EC did not comply with the order of the Supreme Court in the Subramanian Swamy vs ECI case.

In that case, the apex court had ruled that it was necessary to set up Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with the VVPAT (paper-trail) system so that there were no doubts left on the transparency of the election process. The Court had also observed that it would restore the confidence of the voters. It had directed the EC to introduce VVPAT in a phased manner.

In the last hearing, the EC submitted before the Supreme Court that all VVPAT machines would be available by September 2018, and the same would be ready for deployment in the next general elections.

The poll watchdog further said that it had already placed orders for buying 8,07,500 VVPAT units from BHEL and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd.

                                                                        —Parth Sarthy Kaushik