E-Paper
HC seeks EC reply on plea for withdrawing BJP’s election symbol
According to the counsel for the petitioner, the life of election symbols is only for a specific election and a political party can’t use the symbol as its logo.
The Allahabad high court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file its reply in a PIL petition on the alleged misuse of election symbols by political parties as their logos and for freezing/withdrawing the lotus — the country’s national flower and visible on several government websites — as the poll symbol of the BJP.
A bench comprising chief justice Govind Mathur and justice Piyush Agrawal passed the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by one Kali Shankar of Gorakhpur. The court has fixed January 12 as the next date of hearing in the case.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocates Gulab Chandra Tiwari and Kapil Tiwari said, “Lotus is shown as a national flower and is also visible in various government websites. Therefore, no political party can be allowed to use it as its symbol as it will influence the minds of voters and the political party will get undue advantage.”
According to the counsel for the petitioner, the life of election symbols is only for a specific election and a political party can’t use the symbol as its logo. As per the petitioner, if the political parties were permitted to use the election symbols perpetually, for purposes other than elections, it would be highly unjust for candidates not affiliated with recognised parties or independent candidates, as they got fresh symbols before each poll. The petitioner’s plea was that in most democratic countries, the concept of election symbols had already been withdrawn on attaining higher levels of literacy, but in our democratic set-up, there was no intention of the government to withdraw election symbols and go for elections by showing names of candidates in the script applicable.
Under the Representation of People Act as well as 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, the petition said.
The counsel appearing for the ECI sought some time to examine the issue and file a reply.
The court directed the counsel for the petitioner to implead other parties as a respondent in the petition. The petition has raised several important issues pertaining to the allotment of election symbols by the ECI to candidates in accordance with the Representation of People Act, 1951.
On April 4, 2019, the ECI rejected an application by the petitioner seeking freezing/withdrawal of the lotus as the election symbol of the BJP. Thereafter, the petitioner filed the PIL petition in the HC seeking quashing of the rejection order and directions to the ECI to issue fresh guidelines for the use of political symbols.
