The Supreme Court has on Monday asked the Election Commission whether the number of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT, in short) audits can be increased. The EC has to reply to the apex court by March 28.

It has been decided by the EC that one polling station per assembly segment will see VVPAT audit this election season. A plea by 21 political parties had sought the SC's intervention in the matter. The plea says that the SC may see if it can direct the EC to verify VVPATs in at least 50 percent of the EVMs.

The next hearing is scheduled for April 1.

It may be noted that the Delhi High Court's intervention made the introduction of VVPAT possible years ago.

The VVPAT audit issue is relevant in the context of several political parties alleging that there has been large-scale tampering of EVMs in India.