NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has upheld the allotment of the free symbols by the Election Commission to unrecognised political parties on first come, first served basis while dismissing a plea by Tamil Nadu based party- ‘Naam Tamilar Katchi’ which was in the process of approaching the court to get the “sugarcane farmer” symbol.
A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan rejected the challenge against the policy which was aggrieved by the allotment of free symbol ‘ganna kisan’ (sugarcane farmer) to another political party in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the Lok Sabha elections.
The bench also comprising Justice Manmeet PS Arora was dealing with the petitioner’s contention that the Election Symbols Order to this effect was arbitrary and unconstitutional, saying a contrary view would operate against the very essence of having free symbols.
“This court is of the view that if the plea of the Petitioner Party is accepted, the same will operate against the essence of ‘free symbols’, as it will take away the rights and benefits granted to the unrecognised political parties to contest the elections with a free and common symbol,” the court noted.
It added that the Petitioner by the proposed re-phrasing is seeking to retain an advantage for the registered unrecognized political parties to get continued access to a particular free symbol and therefore indirectly converting a free symbol into a reserved symbol.
As per the EC, the provisions of the policy were not arbitrary or unconstitutional and that the “Ganna Kisan” free symbol was allotted to the other political party as it had applied for it first.
The high court, in its order, observed that the application for allotment of the free symbol “Ganna Kisan” was filed by the other political party on December 17, 2023, while the NTK had filed it on January 9.