Removal of Party Symbols from EVMs: BJP Leader Files Plea in Supreme Court Seeking a Direction to ECI to Use Name, Age, Qualification and Photograph of the Contesting Candidates on Ballot and EVMs

(Judicial Quest News Network)

A PIL has been filed in Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to use the name, age, qualification and photograph of the contesting candidates on ballots and Electronic Voting Machines.

The petitioner is BJP leader and AOR Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, it states that When the framers opted parliamentary system of democracy based on ‘adult franchise’, they had not bargained for the ‘law breakers becoming law makers’ but ADR reports confirm that the trend for last 25 year has been increasingly towards criminalization, and now 43% of MPs have criminal cases. 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 petiton further states that Our democracy is suffering from seven menaces- Corruption, Criminalization, Casteism, Communalism, Lingusism, Regionalism and Nepotism and the best solution to weed these menaces is to replace political party symbols on Ballot & EVM with Name, Age, Education Qualification and Photograph of the Candidates. Ballot and EVM without political party symbol have many benefits

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

(b) It will not only weed out casteism and communalism from our democracy but also control use of black money and benami transaction in election.

(c) Ballot and EVM without political party symbol will control dictatorship of political party bosses in ticket distribution and forced them to give ticket to those who religiously work for people’s welfare.

(d) Our democracy will be free from the grip of political party bosses

(e) Ballot & EVM without political party symbol will control nepotism and favoritism, one of the gravest menaces to our democracy

(f) Political parties will be forced to give tickets to local candidates rather than parachute candidates.

(g) Ballots and EVMs without party symbol will not only control the criminalization of politics but also keep check on the middle-man and political brokers.

(h) It will open gateway for social activists, educationists’ jurists’ intellectuals and public welfare spirited honest people to enter into politics and work for betterment of society

(i) The entry of honest and diligent people in Parliament and State Assemblies will lead to formation of better laws for people’s welfare

(j) Intelligent diligent and honest MPs will utilize MPLAD funds effectively

(k) Efficiency of Parliament and State Assemblies will increase ten times

(l) It will control regionalism-linguism, which have become a serious threat to democratic political system.

(m) Long pending reforms viz. election reform police reform judicial reform education reform administrative reform industrial reform agriculture reform labor reform tax reform constitutional reform will be done within year.

The petitioner states that when he came to know that 43% of MPs have criminal cases ADR analyzed self-sworn affidavits of 539 out of 542 MPs of the present Lok Sabha. Election in Vellore constituency was cancelled and 3 MPs were not analyzed due to unavailability complete affidavits on ECI website at the time of analysis.

Out of 539 MPs, 233(43%) MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Out of 542 winners analyzed after 2014 election, 185 (34%) had declared criminal cases against themselves and out of 543 winners analyzed after 2009 Lok Sabha election, 162 (30%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

There is an increase of 44% in the number of Lok Sabha MPs with declared criminal cases against themselves since 2009, and the root cause of this bizarre situation is the use of political party symbol on Ballot Paper and EVM. Presently 159(29%) MPs have declared serious cases including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.

Out of 542 winners analyzed after 2014 Lok Sabha election, 112 (21%) had declared serious cases against themselves. Out of 543 winners analyzed after 2009 Lok Sabha election, 76 (14%) had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Thus, there is an increase of 109% in the number of Legislators with declared serious criminal cases since 2009. Winner from Idukki Constituency has 204 declared criminal cases including cases related to culpable homicide, house trespass, robbery, criminal intimidation etc.

Total 30 MPs have declared cases of attempt to murder (S.307), 19 MPs have declared cases related to crimes against women and out of 19 MPs, 3 MPs have declared cases related to rape (S.376). Total 29 MPs have declared cases related to hate speech.

This is happening in India, which is governed by the Constitution and the root cause of this bizarre situation is use of party symbol on EVM.

The injury caused to the public is extremely large because ‘free and fair election’ is the basic dictum of our democracy and ‘right to vote’ is an important statutory right of citizens but practically both have become a dead letter due to use of political party symbol on ballot paper and EVM, which leads to confusion among voters and result in casting of wrong votes.

For example, when the candidate is honest, patriot and diligent but his party president promotes criminalization castesim communalism regionalism linguism and nepotism and also involved in corruption, then voter finds himself trapped between a good candidate and a bad political party.

The use of political party symbol on Ballot and EVM is not only the root cause of corruption, black money generation, benami transactions, but also the main source of criminalization casteism communalism linguism regionalism and nepotism, the greatest menaces of our democracy. Due to the use of political party symbol on Ballot and EVM, political party bosses have not only become dictators and hijacked the democracy and democratic institutions but are also stockpiling huge black money, benami properties disproportionate assets by selling the political party symbol to looters criminals and even separatists during Parliament and State Assembly Elections.

Use of party symbol on Ballot-EVM, breaches the rights guaranteed under Articles 14-15 read with Articles 325-326:

(i) It prevents free exercise of right to vote due to use of money power by candidates

(ii) It affects ordinary citizen’s rights to get elected and puts him to great disadvantage due to reduced win-ability factor as independent.

(iii) Use of party symbol on Ballot-EVM is arbitrary and irrational because it invites and enables criminal backgrounds to buy ticket from National and State recognized political parties and contest election.

A person convicted of rape, extortion, kidnapping and murder can come back into the electoral arena. A person guilty of corruption, terrorism etc., can become a candidate of National and State recognized parties. Take the case of 2G, CWG, Coal scam accused coming back to election arena through National & State recognized parties. Would they not affect the elections with money and muscle power, offsetting the valuable freedom to vote without fear or favour?

The question to be asked is in the context of ‘little man’s audit’, will such an audit be free? The answer is clearly no, as it cannot be. Principle of one man one vote is based on freedom to vote in a fair election and ‘fair’ denoting equal opportunity, which is impossible without removing symbol from Ballot and EVM.

The plea further states that Use of political party symbol on Ballot-EVM brazenly offends equity, equality and equal opportunity, the most important fundamental right, guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 21 & mentioned in Preamble of the Constitution.

Political parties promote and propagate their election symbol throughout the year.

Thus, even their criminal candidate has more probability to win than an honest patriot hard working independent candidate.

It is necessary to state that the purpose of printing political party symbol on Ballot was to weed out confusion in case of more candidates bearing the same name and to help illiterate electors in casting their vote properly; and the ECI had taken this step by using its plenary power under Article 324.

The consequences of permitting criminals to contest and become legislators are extremely serious for our democracy and secularism:

(i)      during electoral process itself, not only do they deploy ‘enormous amounts of illegal money’ to interfere with the outcome but also intimidate voters and rival candidates

(ii)     (ii) Thereafter, in our weak rule-of-law context, once they gain entry in governance as legislator they interfere with and influence, the functioning of government in favor of themselves & their organization by corrupting government officers and where that doesn’t work, by using their contacts with Ministers to make threats of transfer and initiation of disciplinary proceedings. Many become Ministers, which worsens the situation (iii) Criminal attempt to subvert the administration of justice and attempt by hook or crook to prevent cases against themselves from being concluded & where possible, to obtain acquittals. Long delays in disposal and low conviction are testimony to their influence. Current framework:

(iii)    (a) interferes with purity and integrity of the electoral process

(iv)    (b) violates the right to choose candidate and, therefore, freedom of expression under Article 19(1);

(v)     (c) amounts to a subversion of democracy, which is part of the basic structure; and,

(vi)    (d) is antithetical to the rule of law, which is at core of Article 14.

[Read Petition]