SC notice to EC on displaying candidates photo on EVM

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Election Commission(EC) on a PIL which sought directions for mandatory display of photographs of people contesting elections on EVMs to curb the menace of dummy namesakes.
A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha asked the EC to file its response within 10 weeks.
The court passed the order on a PIL filed by Delhi resident Akash Gahlot alleging that people with dummy namesakes contest elections to confuse voters and the picture of candidates must be displayed on EVMs.
He pleaded that provision must be made for the inclusion of photograph of the contesting candidates on the balloting unit of the electronic voting machine along with serial no, name, party name and symbol.

"The menace of dummy candidates has been noticed by the commission also, but no effective steps have been taken by it. The Commission has failed to take a simple step such as having the photograph of the contesting candidate on the voting machine and the list of contesting candidates displayed at the polling booths," the petition said.