Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 1: The Supreme Court refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) petition on Tuesday submitted by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking directions to Election Commission to stop using party symbols on ballots and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and to substitute “name, age, educational qualification, and photograph” instead.
The case cannot be taken into consideration under Article 32 of the Constitution, according to a bench that included Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi.
“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 said and disposed the plea.
Senior attorney Vikas Singh made the case on behalf of the petitioner that individuals were becoming entirely lost in the political party’s shadow as a result of the way that parties were now being publicised.
Venkataramani, India’s Attorney General, disagreed with the argument, arguing that voters chose their candidates considerably earlier than the EVM, which was used to tally the results of the election. He also said that a candidate must have all of their information disclosed in advance.
“So symbol being mischievous part of it is misconceived. Larger questions on the criminalisation of politics etc is a different issue. But on this, I do not think the petition can stand“, he stated.
Thus, the bench dismissed the argument despite noting the respondents’ assertion that the relevant authority would take the petitioner’s representation into account.
