In a major development to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering issue, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission for not using EVMs with voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).
The top court issued the notice based on a plea filed by the BSP challenging the use of EVMs without paper trail and asked the Centre and the EC to respond to BSP's plea.
The top court will hear the matter on May 8.
Earlier, top leaders from the Opposition including Ghulam Nabi Azad, party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi met President Pranab Mukherjee and urged him to safeguard democracy.
"Recent allegations of EVM tampering have raised questions on electoral process," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after meeting President Mukherjee.
Post Assembly elections this year, many political parties and candidates have raised their voice against the use of EVMs.