New Delhi: The Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by a group of technocrats on Tuesday seeking a direction that all votes on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) be verified with voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPATs). A vacation bench of the apex court headed by Justice Arun Mishra, and comprising Justice MR Shah did not find any merit in the petition. "We dismiss the petition," Justice Mishra said.

SC dismisses PIL seeking 100% matching of VVPAT slips with EVMs during counting of votes for #LokSabhaelections on Thursday.

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) May 21, 2019

Former Chief Election Commissioners of India, Sri Navin Chawla & Sri S. Y. Quraishi also support the demands put forth by us regarding VVPAT verification.

Those who respect democracy are disappointed with how the EC conducted elections. Our fight to save democracy will continue.

— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) May 20, 2019

"We would not entertain such kind of plea over and over again. We cannot come in the way of people electing their representatives," Justice Mishra said while dismissing the petition. Coming down heavily on the petitioners, Justice Mishra termed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) "nuisance".