Delivering its verdict on a clutch of petitions, the top court said persistent doubts and despair in EVMs create distrust in the electoral process and reduce citizen participation. Former CEC O P Rawat welcomed the apex court verdict and pointed out that the Election Commission (EC) had approached the Indian Statistical Institute in 2017, seeking answers on a sample of VVPAT-EVM cross-verification to ensure 99.99 per cent voter confidence level.