"The used or printed VVPAT slips in any election... shall be retained for one year and shall thereafter be destroyed,” says Rule 94 (b) of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. But The Quint has found that the Election Commission of India has already destroyed the printed VVPAT slips used in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. And that too, only four months after the results were announced in May 2019.

In an RTI reply to The Quint, the Public Information Officer of Delhi Election Commission told us that “the VVPAT slips have been disposed of”.

Attached with the RTI reply was the Election Commission’s letter, dated 24 September 2019, to Chief Electoral Officers of all States and Union Territories ordering the “disposal of VVPAT printed paper slips”.