SC refuses to entertain plea against national, state-level status for political parties

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition against a Delhi High Court verdict that had dismissed a plea challenging the recognition of political parties as national or state-level parties by the Election Commission EC.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition against a Delhi High Court verdict that had dismissed a plea challenging the recognition of political parties as national or state-level parties by the Election Commission (EC). A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while hearing a plea challenging the high court's January 9 judgment. The plea before the high court had assailed the validity of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, for classifying political parties as either national or state parties. The high court had held that the petitioner re-agitated issues already settled by the Supreme Court and there was no reason to hold the Symbols Order to be without any statutory powers or discriminatory. The plea before the high court had alleged that the EC illegally recognises political parties as national or state-level entities when it has no power to do so. It had asserted that national and state-level political parties are allotted election symbols for campaigning much before the polls, whereas the candidates of a ''newly-born political party'' would get a symbol only after the date of scrutiny, leaving them with a very short span of time. In its judgment, the high court had observed that the apex court had already held that allotment of election symbols could not be claimed as a fundamental right.