Supreme Court refers EC’s plea to time stamp VVPAT tickets as a remedy for surge in votes in the last hour on election days

Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail). File | Photo credit: K. Murali Kumar

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 27, 2026) asked the Election Commission to consider a petitioner’s plea to time-stamp VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) tickets to record the exact moment a voter cast his vote on election day.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant ordered the Supreme Court registry to hand over the petition and entire records of the case filed by businessman Nalla Suresh Reddy to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Mr. Reddy said that time-stamping of VVPAT slips would be a panacea to the recurring controversies surrounding “last-hour vote surges” and booth-level irregularities. It would be a systemic addition to increase the transparency of elections.

“We have noticed widespread doubts about a sudden spike in polling after 5 pm. Everything would have been stopped by the time-stamping of VVPAT tickets,” said senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioner.

In August 2013, the government announced the amended Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, allowing ECIs to use VVPATs with electronic voting machines during elections.

The petition states that the 1961 rules specifically mandated that the names, serial numbers and symbols of the candidates be listed, but did not require the exact time of voting to be recorded.

“This omission creates a significant gap in the audit,” the court noted the petitioner’s argument in a detailed order. The Bench further noted that the petition sought amendment of the 1961 rules to introduce time stamping on VVPAT tickets.

However, the petition states that the VVPAT slips should not contain any details to identify the voter, including the EPIC number or the name of the voter. A time-stamped VVPAT document could be retained for six months or more, the latter in case of dispute.

The court cited the petition to note that although it was a matter of promoting electoral reforms, accountability and transparency, it was a technical and political matter that fell exclusively within the domain of the ECI.

With the referral of the proposal to the electoral body on behalf of the petitioner, the court stated that it did not comment on the merits of the matter.

Published – 27 May 2026 14:33 IST