LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court has asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file its reply in a PIL seeking freezing of ‘lotus’ as the election symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it is the national flower and is also visible everywhere.
The PIL also demanded that the use of symbols by registered political parties should be limited to elections only and they shouldn’t be allowed to use as their logo as it amounted to misuse and was discriminatory against individual candidates and unregistered parties who are given new symbols in each election.
Hearing a PIL filed by one Kali Shankar of Gorakhpur district, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Piyush Agrawal, posted the hearing for January 12, 2020 .
Appearing for the petitioner, his counsel contended before the court that ‘lotus’ was being shown as a national flower and was also visible on various government websites. Therefore, no political party could be allowed to use it as its symbol as it would influence the minds of voters, and the political party, in turn, would get an undue advantage.
Pleading that political parties should be allowed to use their symbols only for a specific election, the petitioner's lawyer said that if the political parties were permitted to use the election symbols perpetually, for purposes other than elections, then that would be highly unjust for the candidates who were not affiliated with recognized parties or independent candidates who used to get fresh symbols before each election.
It is asserted that under the Representation of People Act as well as under the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968 (Order of 1968), the concept of election symbols is applicable only for the purpose of elections and such symbols cannot be used as a logo of any political party.
Further, according to the petitioner, the BJP has violated the model code of conduct by using its electoral symbol on the government website.
Counsel appearing for ECI sought some time to examine the entire issue involved in the petition and further, to file a reply to the same.
Both the ECI and the BJP have been made respondent in the PIL which also challenged an earlier order of poll panel in which it had dismissed a petition seeking freezing of BJP’s election symbol.