NEW DELHI: Senior advocate and Congress member Kapil Sibal requested the Supreme Court on Wednesday to widen the ambit of election laws to curb canvassing of votes using religion since the use of information technology had pushed campaigning to a new level.Drawing from his experience in the political battlefield, Sibal said rapid evolution of internet and mobile phones and their use in campaigning did not require a candidate to use religion any more in his speeches."The candidate is assisted by an army of campaigners who bombard voters with communal messages inciting passion. Politicians know the voters' caste, community, religious and linguistic demographic division. They have mastered the art of inciting passion using each segment without saying a word in public," he said."T he court must keep the new-age tools and internet in mind while interpreting Section 123 of Representation of the People Act. Giving a restrictive meaning to the law and fastening liability only when a candidate uses religion, caste, community or language to seek votes would only encourage the use of proscribed elements in elections," he added .Sibal said constitutional ethos did not permit any harm to the secular fabric of the country by mixing of religion and politics.The bench said, "The heart of Indian politics is on the basis of discrimination on the basis of caste and religion, Scheduled Castes and Tribes. So how can religion and caste per se be an anathema to politics?"Sibal said, "Making an election speech for protection of Scheduled Castes, Tribes or welfare of minority would not fall foul of Section 123 of RP Act as the Constitution itself talks of government taking steps for welfare of these groups. Technology may have changed the campaigning, but can a candidate be held liable for every post on social networking sites or other electronic medium?"Looking at the new element - information technology in polls - introduced by Sibal, the bench asked, "Would it be possible for the candidate to keep track of what any person in his constituency posts on the internet? It could be done by his rival to get him disqualified."Sibal agreed it was a possibility. The SC then asked, "Would a candidate get disqualified if the party manifesto talks of prohibited elements? Would all candidates of a political party get disqualified if its president appeals to a religious leader to issue a directive to his followers to vote for a particular party?"The court also wanted to know if the use of religion was banned in other countries.Senior advocate Salman Khurshid said he would present a comparative study of other countries. "In many countries, religion is freely used and there is no legal bar on it. But it has been prohibited in India since 1951," he said.