Supreme Court refuses to entertain PIL to replace party symbol on EVMs with details of candidates

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking directions to the Election Commission to stop the practice of having party symbols on ballot and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and instead replace them with ''name, age, educational qualification and photograph'' of contesting candidates..A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi opined that the case cannot be considered under Article 32 of the Constitution. "Election is integrally connected to the political party which backs the particular candidate. It is possible that after being elected the person joins another party," the bench stated while disposing of the plea. .Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioner, argued that currently political parties were being publicised with individuals getting completely lost under the party's shadow. "That is why legislators have criminal cases against them," he added stating that such symbols brazenly violate equality. .The Attorney General for India R Venkataramani, however, opposed the plea stating that EVM came at the end of a polling process and voters choose their candidate much before that. Additionally, he submitted that all details of a candidate are required to be disclosed beforehand. "So symbol being mischievous part of it is misconceived. Larger questions on criminalisation of politics etc is a different issue. But on this, I do not think the petition can stand", he stated. .The bench, thus, disposed the plea while recording the submission of the respondents that the petitioner's representation in the matter would be considered by the concerned authority..The petition filed by Upadhyay stated that the best solution to weed corruption and criminalisation in politics is to replace political party symbols on ballot and EVM with name, age, educational qualification and photograph of the candidates..The petition further stated that ballot and EVM, without political party symbols, have many benefits as it will help electors to vote and support intelligent, diligent and honest candidates."Ballot and EVMs, without political party symbol, will control dictatorship of political party bosses in ticket distribution and force them to give ticket to those who religiously work for people''s welfare," it said..[Read our live coverage of the hearing below].Advocates Kapish Seth, Asha Upadhyay, Ashwani Kumar Dubey and Chandra Shekhar also represented the petitioner. Advocates Anandh Venkataramani, Vinayak Mehrotra, Chitvan Singhal, and Sonali Jain also appeared for the respondents. [Read order]