On Friday, the Supreme Court asked the attorney general’s and solicitor general’s advice on a petition urging the Election Commission to delete symbols from ballots and EVMs and replace them with candidates’ addresses, genders, professional credentials, and photos.
A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has requested the BJP leader and the ECI of the petitioner to forward a copy for the petition to Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, without giving any formal notices to both the Center and the ECI.
“You serve the copy to the AG and SG and then we will see. We are not issuing notice at the moment,” the bench said
During the brief hearing, the bench asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, who was representing Upadhyay, what the objections were to the election logo on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Singh said that they sent a letter to the Election Commission but have yet to obtain a response.
He said that the complainant needs this information on EVMs in order to determine how viable the applicant is.
Singh went on to state that he searched in Brazil, where there are only numbers to contend with and no symbols.
The bench asked Singh again how a poll symbol affects the electronic voting mechanism, and Singh responded that he would clarify the basis on the next date of hearing.
Upadhyay’s petition also demands that the use of party symbols on EVMs be ruled unlawful, unconstitutional, and in violation of the Constitution.
It said that the only way to eliminate corruption and criminalization of politics is to substitute political party labels on ballots and EVMs with the candidates’ names, ages, educational qualifications, and photographs.
The petition goes on to say that ballots and EVMs without political party labels have many advantages because they enable voters to vote for and support knowledgeable, conscientious, and trustworthy candidates.
“Ballot and EVMs, without political party symbol, will control dictatorship of political party bosses in ticket distribution and force them to give the ticket to those who religiously work for people’s welfare,” the plea said.
“Of the 542 winners examined after the 2014 election, 185 (34%) had reported criminal cases against themselves, while 162 (30%) had declared criminal cases against themselves in the 543 winners examined after the 2009 Lok Sabha election.”
“The number of Lok Sabha MPs with proclaimed cases since 2009 has increased by 44%, and the root cause of this bizarre situation is the use of the political party symbols on the ballot paper and EVM,” said the appeal.
