NEW DELHI: Unrecognised political parties, including Tamil actor Vijayakanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam(DMDK), contesting the ensuing Assembly elections in five states on Wednesday suffered a setback with the Supreme Court declining to entertain their plea for common symbols.
A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph declined to grant any interim relief to 11 parties seeking common symbols but said it would take up on May 3 for final disposal the batch of petitions and cross appeal filed by the Election Commission on the issue.
“It would certainly be to the advantage of the registered unrecognised political parties if they were able to put up candidates on a common symbol.
On the other hand, if all registered unrecognised political parties were to be provided with a common symbol, prima facie, it would render the provisions of the Election Symbols Order, 1968, completely unworkable and destroy the very object it seeks to achieve.
Having regard to the aforesaid two possibilities, we are not inclined to make any interim arrangement similar to that made on an earlier occasion”, the apex court said in a judgment.
The apex court said the precedent set by it in 2009 by allotting common symbols as an interim arrangement to three political parties, Praja Rajyam, Lok Satta and DMDK cannot be followed this time as there were more number of unrecognised political parties in this year’s elections scheduled between April and May.
“The earlier interim arrangement was possible on account of the lesser number of parties but in the present circumstances, the same will not be workable in view of the number of candidates who are likely to contest the elections and are required to be provided with free symbols in each constituency.
However, while we are not inclined to make any interim arrangement regarding the allotment of symbols for the forthcoming elections, we make it clear that this is only a tentative view which shall not, in any way, affect the final outcome of the pending writ petitions and special leave petitions,” the bench said.
The apex court further said that its today’s order will not prevent the Election Commission from considering any representation that may be made by the political parties for accommodating their prayer for a common symbol.
The Election Commission had opposed the petitions filed by the political parties on the ground that it had limited common symbols for allotment and only recognized political parties are entitled to it.
It has also challenged the March 27, 2009, judgement of the apex court allotting common symbols to three political parties.