NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government and the Election Commission to consider a representation by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay to replace political party symbols with details of the candidates in Electronic Voting Machines.
A bench headed by Chief Justice U U Lalit said the court cannot entertain a PIL under Article 32 of the Constitution in this regard.
After hearing senior advocates Vikas Singh and Gopal Sankaranarayanan on behalf of the petitioner, the bench said ends of justice would be met if the representation is considered by the authorities concerned.
During the hearing, the bench pointed out the election is integrally connected to the political party which backs the particular candidate.
The bench also referred to the Tenth Schedule which recognised legislative party and political party.
Senior counsel Singh submitted symbols of political parties in EVMs violated equality and equal opportunities to candidates. A candidate who may be working hard in a particular constituency finds it difficult when the political parties impose their own choices upon the electorates.
Candidates with criminal backgrounds easily obtain tickets from political parties affecting the prospects of genuine candidates, he said.
Attorney General R Venkataramani opposed the plea, saying the voters make their choices before coming to EVMs to cast their votes. He said he didn't think the petition can stand.
On this, Singh said let the authorities concerned should deliberate on the issue.
In his plea, Upadhyay contended the democracy in the country was suffering from seven menaces corruption, criminalisation, casteism, communalism, linguistic divisions, regionalism and nepotism and the best solution to weed these out is to replace political party symbols on the ballot and EVM with name, age, education qualification and photograph of the candidates.
The facts constituting cause of action accrued on July 1, 2019 and continued when the petitioner came to know that 43% MPs have criminal cases, the plea filed through advocate advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey said.
There is an increase of 109% in the number of Legislators with declared serious criminal cases since 2009, it added.
"Use of party symbol on EVM, breaches the rights guaranteed under Articles 14-15 read with Articles 325-326 of the Constitution as it prevents free exercise of right to vote due to use of money power by candidates, affects ordinary citizens rights to get elected and puts him to great disadvantage due to reduced winnability factor as independent. Further, the use of party symbol on EVM is arbitrary and irrational because it invites and enables persons with criminal backgrounds to buy ticket from national and state recognised political parties and contest election," the plea said.
