New Delhi, Mar 8 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on Wednesday a PIL, a day before counting of votes begins in five states, demanding VVPAT verification at the beginning of counting of votes, rather than verification after the counting is over.

Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli. The bench queried Arora, the counting is day after tomorrow and she has mentioned the plea now? Arora pressed for hearing on the petition Wednesday, as counting is the day after tomorrow.

The bench told her to inform the election commission about the plea and the court will examine the matter Wednesday.

During the brief hearing, the bench pointed out the 2019 guidelines.

The plea has sought VVPAT verification of EVMs in five booths per constituency instead of one booth per constituency, which is the current practice.

In April 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to increase the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips from one Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) per Assembly constituency to five.