NEW DELHI: NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ through advocate Prashant Bhushan told the Supreme Court on Monday that RTI responses had revealed the Commission had destroyed all Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips of the 2019 general elections even though the rules said they had to be retained for a year.The NGO and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra have filed petitions seeking publication of various forms that inform the candidate about the number of votes polled, rejected, NOTA and how many the candidate got. The SC had issued notice to the EC on December 7.Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant , Bhushan said the Conduct of Election Rules mandated that VVPAT slips collected from EVMs should be retained for a year unless the EC decides otherwise. “Why should the EC decide otherwise for destruction of VVPAT slips when there is so many instances of mismatch between EVM vote count and VVPAT slip counts?” he asked.Appearing for the EC, advocate Amit Sharma said Bhushan was arguing an issue which did not find mention in the pending petitions. When Bhushan said he would file a supplementary application raising this issue before the court, the bench said, “As of now, the issue is not before the court, so reserve your arguments till the time the issue comes before the court.”Sharma said the EC would file a comprehensive response to both the petitions and the bench adjourned hearing for four weeks.