The Supreme Court on Friday directed a petitioner to serve a copy to the attorney-general, the country’s highest law officer, of a plea for replacing party symbols on EVMs with candidates’ name, age and education qualifications to prevent the rising criminalisation of politics.

“List the matter after one week to enable the petitioner to serve a copy of this writ petition upon the learned attorney-general of India,” a bench of Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian said in a written order. The court can issue such an order if it feels the AG’s help will be needed to resolve an important issue.

The bench briefly heard senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya who has earned the sobriquet “PIL man of India” for having filed 100 public interest litigation petitions on various issues.

Upadhyaya has sought an appropriate writ order or direction to the Election Commission of India to use the “name, age, educational qualification and photograph” of the candidates on EVMs to provide an equal opportunity to nominees and weed out “corruption, criminalisation, casteism, communalism, regionalism, linguism and nepotism, the seven menaces of our democracy”.

According to the petition, when the framers of the Constitution opted for the parliamentary system of democracy based on adult franchise, they had not bargained for the “law-breakers becoming law-makers”. Upadhyaya said that according to data collected by the NGO Association for Democratic Rights, 43 per cent of MPs had criminal cases against them.

“Many MPs are facing serious criminal charges like rape, murder, kidnapping, extortion, fraud and theft and still they not only participate in law-making but also interfere in police investigations to perpetrate their criminal empire,” the petition said.

According to the PIL, ballots and EVMs without the symbols of political parties have the following benefits:

⚫ It will help electors to vote and support intelligent, diligent and honest candidates, which is not possible in today’s scenario.

⚫ It will not only weed out casteism and communalism from our democracy but also control the use of black money and benami transaction in elections.

⚫ It will control dictatorship of party bosses in ticket distribution and force them to nominate those who religiously work for people’s welfare.

⚫ Democracy will be free from the grip of political party bosses.

⚫ It will control nepotism and favouritism, one of the gravest menaces to democracy.

⚫ Parties will be forced to give tickets to local candidates rather than parachuting nominees.

⚫ Ballots and EVMs without party symbols will not only control the criminalisation of politics but also keep a check on middlemen and political brokers.

⚫ It will allow social activists, educationists, jurists, intellectuals and public welfare-spirited, honest people to enter politics and work for the betterment of society.

⚫ The entry of honest and diligent people in Parliament and Assemblies will lead to the framing of better laws for people’s welfare.

⚫ Intelligent, diligent and honest MPs will utilise MPLAD funds effectively.

⚫ Efficiency of Parliament and Assemblies will increase 10 times.

⚫ It will control regionalism and linguism, which have become a serious threat to the democratic political system.

⚫ Reforms in elections, police, judiciary, education, administration, industry, agriculture, labour, tax and Constitution can be done within a year.