The Election Commission alleges that the VVPAT data of the Lok Sabha elections was destroyed a year ago.

(PTI) New Delhi, Ta. February 24, 2020, Monday

Two non-governmental organizations have complained to the Supreme Court that the Election Commission violated the rules of the election by deleting the VVPAT (Water Variable Paper Audit Trial) data from last year's Lok Sabha elections.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Common Cause two NGOs sought RVI to seek VVPAT information from the Election Commission. In response, the Election Commission said that they had destroyed this data.

Both non-governmental organizations told a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde that the VVPAT data needs to be preserved for one year as per the Rules of Conduct of Elections.

In addition to Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice BR Gawai and a bench of Justice Suryakant said, "At present, we will not consider this matter.

Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer present on behalf of the NGO, said that we were forced to apply in this regard as the shocking details came out in response to a question asked under the RTI application.

The bench had earlier issued a notice to the Election Commission regarding the public interest petition filed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, alleging that there was a gap between the counting of votes in 347 constituencies and the percentage of voters. However, the Election Commission has not yet responded to the notice.

Referring to the data prepared by his team's experts, the ADR said that the gap found between the counting of votes and the percentage of voters is worrying. The ADR further stated that the discrepancy is seen from one vote to 1,01,323 watts. There are six seats in which the inconsistency of votes is more than the margin of victory.