Delhi HC rejects plea seeking de-registration, de-recognition of AIMIM: ‘tantamount to interference with fundamental rights…’

In 2018, the petitioner had challenged AIMIM’s recognition, saying its constitution was intended to further the cause of only Muslims and went against the principles of secularism.

The petition was filed by Tirupati Narasimha Murari, a member of the undivided Shiv Sena, in 2018. (File Image)

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking the deregistration and derecognition of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) by the Election Commission of India (ECI), terming the plea as “tantamount to interference with the fundamental rights of the members of AIMIM to constitute themselves as a political party”.

The petition was filed by Tirupati Narasimha Murari, a member of the undivided Shiv Sena, in 2018. Murari had challenged the AIMIM’s recognition, contending that its constitution was “intended to further the cause only of one religious community (viz. Muslims), and thus militates against the principles of secularism, to which every political party must adhere under the scheme of the Constitution and the Act [Representation of the People Act]”.

The ECI had accepted the AIMIM’s request for registration on June 1, 1992, and it was recognised as a state party in Telangana in 2014.

Refusing to entertain Murari’s plea, the court of Justice Prateek Jalan reiterated that the ECI is not empowered to deregister a political party and that the relief sought by Murari “lies beyond the jurisdiction of ECI”. “The petitioner’s arguments are thus tantamount to interference with the fundamental rights of the members of AIMIM to constitute themselves as a political party espousing their political beliefs and values. Such a consequence cannot lightly be countenanced…,” the court said in its order.

The court also held that the AIMIM fulfils the statutory condition under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act which includes a requirement that the constitutional documents of a political party should declare that the party bears true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, and to the basic tenets of socialism, secularism, and democracy, which are embedded in our constitutional values.

“On the facts of the present case, this requirement has been fulfilled by AIMIM. The petitioner (Murari) himself has annexed to the writ petition, a letter dated 09.08.1989, submitted by AIMIM in support of its application for registration, stating that its constitution had been amended in terms of Section 29A(5) of the Act,” Justice Jalan recorded.

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