Political parties can't consider election symbols as exclusive property: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has held that political parties cannot consider election symbols as their exclusive property and the right to use a symbol can be lost if a partys performance is dismalThe high courts observation came while dismissing an appeal by Samata Party challenging a single judges order which had rejected its plea against allotment of flaming torch election symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv SenaThe appellant party claimed that the flaming torch symbol belonged to it and that it had contested elections on itA bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad also referred to a previous verdict of the Supreme Court in Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India case and said the judgment further stated that a symbol is not a tangible thing nor does it generate any wealthIt is only the insignia which is associated with the particular political party so as to help the millions of illiterate voters to properly exercise their right to franchise in favour of the candidate of their choice belonging to a particular party The parties concerned cannot consider the symbol as its exclusive property The ElectionSymbols Reservation And Allotment Order 1968 makes it very clear that the right to use the symbol can be lost with the dismal performance of the party the bench said in its orderAlso Read India to be worlds 2nd largest economy by 2050 Gautam AdaniIt said even though Samata Party members were permitted to use the flaming torch symbol the symbol has become a free symbol with the party having been derecognised in 2004 and it was within the domain of the Election Commission to allot the same to any other partyNo fault can be found with the communicationcumorder dated October 10 2022 issued by the Election Commission of India allotting the symbol of flaming torch to Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Order dated October 19 2022 passed by the single judge it saidThe bench said a reserved symbol is the one which is reserved for a recognised political party for exclusive allotment to contesting candidates fielded by that party and Samata Party was derecognised as a state party in 2004Earlier in October the single judge had dismissed the petition saying that in the absence of any right demonstrable before the court the petitioner cannot seek a mandamus for quashing the ECs order and that the party has not demonstrated any right over the symbol It had noted that the party was derecognised in 2004The petitioner in its appeal said that the single judge had dismissed its plea on the very first date of hearing without issuing notice to the EC Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath ShindeThe petitioner has assailed the October 10 order of EC on the grounds that flaming torch was a reserved symbol and could not have been given to Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray without first issuing a notification that it had been made a free symbolIn its plea the petitioner stated it was formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar as an offshoot of the Janata Dal and was given the flaming torch symbol by the ECThe plea stated that the petitioner was striving to revive itself and is going to contest the upcoming elections and people have recognised the petitioner party from its symbol for more than four decades and now great prejudice would be caused to the petitioner party if the same symbol is allotted to some other partyThe Election Commission had defended the allotment and said there was no requirement under the law to issue any notification as claimed by the petitioner before passing the allotment orderWhile dealing with the dispute between the rival factions of the Shiv Sena the EC had on October 10 issued a communication allotting the flaming torch symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the time beingIt had said the symbol was not in the list of free symbols and was an erstwhile reserved symbol of the now derecognised Samata Party but it has decided to allot the same on a request to declare it a free symbolEknath Shinde the current Maharashtra Chief Minister and the leader of the rival Shiv Sena faction had raised a banner of revolt against Thackeray earlier this year accusing him of entering into an unnatural alliance with the Congress and the NCPOver 40 of the Shiv Senas 55 MLAs had supported Shinde forcing the resignation of Thackeray from the post of Maharashtra Chief MinisterFollowing Thackerays resignation Shinde became the chief minister with the support of the BJPTwelve of the 18 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena also came out in support of Shinde who later claimed to be the leader of the original Shiv SenaThe Andheri East bypoll in which polling was held on November 3 is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA from power and formed a coalition governmentThackeray has also approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the order of the EC freezing party name Shiv Sena and its election symbol bow and arrow and the plea has been dismissedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever