SC dismisses Janata Party plea on symbol

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the Janata Party challenging the Election Commission's decision t...

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the Janata Party challenging the Election Commission’s decision to dereserve its election symbol "Chakra Haladhar" while derecognising it as a state party.

A division Bench comprising Justice S P Bharucha and Justice Y K Sabharwal dismissed the petition after hearing brief arguments from party president Subramanian Swamy.

Swamy argued that the Commission, under the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservations and Allotment) Order, 1968, could derecognise a party at the national or state level but it had no power to dispose of the election symbol of such a derecognised party.

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The petition challenged that part of Commission’s September 7, 2000 order dereserving its symbol but Swamy pointed out that on December 2, 2000 the Commission allowed Janata Party candidates to use the original symbol for six more years.

Swamy said with this order, his party’s prayers before the Supreme Court have been partially met but as a general rule the Commission should not have power to dereserve symbol of a derecognised party to any other candidate in an election.

The Bench said the party could approach an appropriate forum for this as the court was not the right forum to agitate the matter.