The Maharashtra State Election Commission told the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court that it cannot use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines in the upcoming local body elections because there is no legal framework permitting their use and no compatible technology available for such polls. The clarification came in response to a petition filed by Congress leader Prafulla Gudadhe, who had challenged the commission’s decision to exclude VVPATs.
The commission explained that VVPAT machines currently used in India are designed only for single-member, single-post elections such as Assembly or Parliamentary polls, where each voter selects one candidate for one seat. In contrast, Maharashtra’s local body elections—covering village panchayats, municipal councils, and municipal corporations—require voting for multiple members across multiple posts. These multi-seat, multi-post systems would require specially designed VVPAT machines, which do not exist at present.
The SEC stated that the EVMs being deployed for these local elections are customised for multi-member formats under the supervision of a technical evaluation committee. Since voters may choose representatives for several posts simultaneously, standard VVPATs cannot be integrated into the system.
Although the SEC rejected the use of VVPATs for most local body elections, it did request the Election Commission of India for permission to use VVPAT-enabled EVMs for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, which involve single-member, single-post voting. The ECI declined the request, and the state commission also pointed out that even if the machines were provided, the lack of explicit legal provisions in local body laws would still prevent their use.
The commission further highlighted that it conducted a trial in 2017 during the Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation elections, covering 31 wards, to develop a suitable VVPAT for its local election EVMs. The pilot project was unsuccessful, and no viable system has been created since.
Ultimately, the SEC concluded that it does not possess any VVPAT units compatible with local body polls and that there is not enough time to design or produce new ones before the upcoming elections.
