The Delhi High Court rejected the Janta Party’s plea challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) order regarding its election symbol. The court ruled that the party’s objections lacked merit. The decision upholds the ECI’s authority over symbol allocation and registration. This ruling has implications for the party’s future participation in elections.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court dismissed the Janta Party’s petition contesting the Election Commission’s order to reserve election symbols exclusively for recognized registered political parties.
A bench comprised of Acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela noted that the issues raised had already been decisively addressed by both the Supreme Court and the High Court in previous cases.
The bench emphasized that political parties could not claim symbols as their “exclusive” property, and that a party could lose its symbol due to “dismal performance.”
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The bench stated,
“In view of the above, the petitioner’s challenge to the constitutional validity of the order is rejected. The petition is dismissed.”
The petitioner’s counsel contended that the Janta Party was previously a recognized political party and sought to retain the right to use the plough symbol, which had been associated with it in prior elections.
They argued that the election symbol is an intrinsic property of a political party, regardless of its recognition status, claiming that the Election Symbol Order discriminates against unrecognized parties.
The counsel insisted that the order should not strip a party of its symbol simply because it failed to secure 6 percent of valid votes in the last election.
Advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing the Election Commission of India, stated that the same issue had been raised by former petitioner Subramanian Swamy and had already been resolved by the Supreme Court. The court acknowledged the merits of the Election Commission’s argument, asserting that the issue was no longer res integra.
The Janta Party, a political party with its roots in the Janata Party coalition of the 1970s and 1980s, had applied for the use of a ‘Lamps’ symbol in the upcoming elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI), however, had refused to allot the symbol to the Janta Party, citing legal and procedural grounds.
The party had approached the Delhi High Court in response to the ECI’s refusal, arguing that the decision was unfair and violated the principles of natural justice. The Janta Party contended that the symbol should be granted based on its historical significance, asserting that it had used the ‘Lamps’ symbol in previous elections.
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