An appeal has been filed before the Supreme Court asking for directions to the Election Commission to stop the practice of having party symbols on the ballot and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and replacing them with ”name, age, educational qualification, and photograph” of challenging candidates. The appeal filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, BJP spokesperson emerged for hearing before a Bench of CJI SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian when it directed that a copy of the appeal be set out on Attorney General KK Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to extract their views.
No formal notice was issued by the Court
Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the solicitor argued that, in Brazil, a candidate gets a digit to contest polls and that no symbols are allotted.