New Delhi:  Supreme Court today granted a week’s time to the 21 Opposition parties to file their reply on  the Election Commission’s affidavit on their plea regarding use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips along with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the Lok Sabha polls.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who told senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the opposition, “The counting is scheduled on May 23. You have sufficient time to file a rejoinder,” and adjourned the matter for April 8.

The Election Commission of India, in its affidavit to the top court, has said that the ‘existing system is foolproof’.

Further, more VVPAT count would take six more days to complete the counting of election results.

The petitioners led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Chandrababu Naidu had sought that VVPAT slips of at least 50 per cent of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly constituency be checked randomly before declaration of the Lok Sabha election results.