SC agrees to hear PIL on providing details of candidates on EVMs and not just party symbols

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to issue notice, but asked the petitioner, BJP leader and lawyer, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, to serve a copy to the Attorney General (AG) K K Venugopal, on his plea seeking a direction to use the name, age, qualification and photograph of contesting candidates on electronic voting machines in place of political party symbol.

A three-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde and also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubraman, asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and lawyer, Upadhyay, to serve a copy to the AG, Venugopal on the said issue.

"The party symbol is the root cause of corruption, and criminalisation, and thereby he sought appropriate orders and or directions to use name, age, qualification and photograph of contesting candidates on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in place of a political party symbol," the plea stated.

Former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioner, Upadhyay, today told the Apex Court that he had checked and found that in Brazil, you just get numbers to contest and no symbols.

Singh also submitted to the Apex Court bench led by the CJI Bobde that in the Representation of People's (RP) Act, when any political party is registered only these details are asked for.

To this, the CJI Bobde asked Singh, how does a symbol can prejudice the electronic voting process in any way?

While responding, Singh said that the intrinsic value of the candidates can be taken and measured by the voters if these can be taken into consideration.

The CJI, however, said that we will not issue a notice at this stage. "But, you please serve a copy to the AG, Venugopal" in the issue.

"You (petitioner) serve a copy on the Attorney General and then we will see. No notice now," the CJI Bobde said.

Singh also submitted to the Apex Court that he had sent a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and other authorities, but they didn't get any response yet in the matter.

( With inputs from ANI )