Delhi HC turns down plea seeking direction to ECI to derecognise Aam Aadmi Party

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela opined that there is no law that empowers the constitutional authority to undertake such action.

The Delhi high court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to de-recognise Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its failure to disclose criminal antecedents of candidates contesting the February assembly polls, and that it is named as an accused in the Delhi excise policy case.

Representational image.

Besides AAP, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its money laundering case had also named former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh as accused in the charge sheet in connection with the alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the 2021-22 excise policy. While Kejriwal is contesting the Delhi assembly elections from the New Delhi constituency, AAP has fielded Sisodia from Jangpura.

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela opined that there is no law that empowers the constitutional authority to undertake such action.

“Your first prayer is de-recognition of the political party. There is no provision for derecognition suspension etc., so the prayer cannot be granted. There may be a good reason why such de recognition power is not given. You are asking us to derecognise a political party, which we can’t do,” the court told advocate Arun Maitri, counsel for petitioner Ashwini Mudgal, who claims to be a social worker and former member of Delhi Rural Development Board.

The court’s remarks came after ECI’s counsel submitted that the apex poll body has no authority to de-recognise a political party.

In his petition, Mudgal had also said the party was misleading voters by not issuing a declaration on its website or publicly stating criminal cases against it and its candidates.

During the hearing on Monday, advocate Maitri submitted that though AAP’s office bearers, including its MPs and MLAs contesting the polls, have been named in the alleged liquor scam and land grabbing matters, the party has violated the Model Code of Conduct by flouting the Supreme Court’s 2021 directions in the Ram Babu Singh Thakur case.

In the said verdict, the Supreme Court had ordered political parties to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections along with the reasons that made them field suspected criminals over decent people. Additionally, the court had also ordered for publication of this information in a local and a national newspaper as well as the parties’ social media handles.

Considering the contention, the court asked Mudgal’s lawyer to approach the Supreme Court over alleged non-compliance of the directions by the apex court.

“Can it be a 226 (petition)? No, it can’t be. How can that be? You have to file a petition before a competent authority. We are not competent authorities,” the bench told advocate Maitri.

Maitri opted to withdraw the petition with the liberty to approach the Supreme Court. “Heard counsel for the parties. The counsel appearing for the petitioner after arguing at some length states that he may be permitted to withdraw the petition with liberty to approach the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the petition is withdrawn with liberty as prayed for,” the court said in the order.