New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a petition seeking the Election Commission to remove party symbols from ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs) and put age, educational qualification and photograph of candidates instead.
According to the cause list of October 31 uploaded on the website of the apex court, the plea is likely to come up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices SR Bhat and Bela M Trivedi.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, said that the move will help electors vote and support intelligent and honest candidates and "control the dictatorship of political party bosses in ticket distribution".
The plea has also sought directions to declare the use of party symbol on EVM as illegal, unconstitutional, and violative of the Constitution.
As per the petition, the best way to do away with corruption and criminalisation in politics is to replace party symbols on ballot and EVM with candidate details.
"Ballot and EVM without a political party symbol will control the dictatorship of political party bosses in ticket distribution and force them to give tickets to those who religiously work for people's welfare,” the plea said.
Referring to a study by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-governmental organisation working in electoral reforms, the petition said out of 539 MPs, 233 have declared criminal cases against themselves.
"Out of 542 winners analysed after the 2014 election, 185 (34 per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves and out of 543 winners analysed after the 2009 Lok Sabha election, 162 (30 per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves. There is an increase of 44 per cent 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 symbols on ballot paper and EVM,” the plea said.