EVMs to have photos of candidates: Justice Kurian

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 2

The photographs of all candidates may flash on the electronic voting machines. It will save illiterate people from being misguided when the names of candidates are same during polls.

This was stated by the Supreme Court Judge, Justice Kurian Jospeh, while delivering the Fifth Lala Amar Chand Sood Memorial lecture on “Judicial Legislation” organised by the Bar Association of India here today.

“The Election Commission of India (ECI), in a petition filed by a citizen, has informed the Supreme Court that it is considering to include the photographs of candidates along with their names so as to tackle the problem of duplicate candidates,” said Justice Kurian, who is part of the Bench hearing the petition.

Citing this as a perfect example of the court giving vent to the aspirations of the people, he said judicial legislation was a consequence of legislation and executive inaction.

“The judiciary can be accused of usurping the powers of the legislature only when it is compelled to do so,” he said. He also cited the case of the None-of-the-Above (NOTA) option being given to voters during polling.

“It is the duty of the court to say not what the statute is but what the statute must be in times of a crisis or in a peculiar situation,” he said. He said often the court gave vent to the aspirations of the people who were thinking of the future of democracy and these were some of the ways where court experimented.

Justice Kurian said the legislature makes the law, the executive implements it while the judiciary interprets and applies the law, settles disputes to protect the rights of the citizens. “There is judicial review of administrative action to see if it is not in violation of the rights of the people and the court needs to step in to protect their rights,” he said. At times, the court has to direct that plenary legislation be made.

“People approach the judiciary as they look up to us as guardians of the Constitution who put life into a law,” he opined. He said the Vishaka and Others vs State of Rajasthan case was a classic example where no law was framed to deal with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace despite the Supreme Court directions for 15 years.

Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir said it was the duty of a judge to interpret the law as per the given situation and circumstances, which could vary from place to place.

“The judge must not pass an order which is against the basic spirit of the Constitution but he is well within his right to interpret it and protect the rights of the citizens,” he remarked.

Kapil Dev Sood, a lawyer and son of Lala Amar Chand, in whose memory the lecture is held, Advocate General Shravan Dogra, president of the High Court Bar Association Yashwardhan Chauhan and Rachna Srivastava from the Bar Association of India also spoke.