New Delhi, March 14: The Supreme Court will hear, on Friday, a PIL seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls through ballot papers. As per the cause list published on the website of the apex court, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta, and Augustine George Masih will take up the matter for hearing on March 15.

The plea filed by the General Secretary of Congress' Mathura District Committee said that "concerns of the opposition parties about the EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) must be first addressed by holding elections upon ballot papers in place of acting at the pleasure of ruling BJP". Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Aam Aadmi Party Releases List of Eight Candidates for Punjab for Upcoming General Polls.

It prays to set aside the Section 61A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 empowering the EC to conduct elections through EVMs. "Whether plea of booth capture, ballot box stalling, invalid votes, waste of paper, etc against ballot paper is unjustified and irrational while one EVM machine stores 2,000 to 3,840 votes. This means that by manipulation in data of only 50 EVM machines per constituency, an electoral fraud of 1 lakh to 1.92 lakh is possible in the 'First Past the Post’ system'," the PIL said. BJP Second Candidate List for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Out: Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar and Piyush Goyal Among 72 Candidates, Check Full List.

Additionally, "the extra love and support of the ruling party towards EVMs creates doubt about the functioning of EVM machines because the election results are supposed to remain the same, irrespective of EVMs or ballot paper", it added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2024 11:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).