Subramanian Swamy VVPAT case
Also called: Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India (2013) · Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Subramanian Swamy VVPAT case is a 2013 Supreme Court judgment. It held that a paper trail is indispensable, which means absolutely necessary, for free and fair elections. VVPAT stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. It is a printer attached to the EVM that briefly shows the voter a paper slip with the chosen symbol. The Court directed that VVPAT be brought in with EVMs in phases. The judgment matters because it lets voters, and later counting staff, check that the EVM recorded the vote correctly.
Example
After the 2013 judgment, the Election Commission added VVPAT machines step by step. By the 2019 Lok Sabha election, every EVM had a VVPAT. The paper slips are now counted from five random EVMs per assembly segment to cross-check results.
Don't confuse with
- N. Chandrababu Naidu case (2019): Swamy (2013) made the paper trail necessary. Naidu (2019) decided how many machines' slips must be counted, raising it from one to five per segment.