Delhi High Court Rejects Janta Party's Plea Against Rule To Reserve Election Symbol Only For Recognised Political Parties

The Delhi High Court on Friday (January 17) rejected a petition filed by Janta Party challenging the Election Symbol (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968, on reservation of election symbol only for recognised registered political parties.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela dismissed the plea, observing that the issue raised has been settled in various judgments.

Janta Party had challenged the Order as being discriminatory on the ground that symbols allotted to any registered political party cannot be separated from the party being its integral part.

It was submitted that till the party is registered with the Election Commission of India, it cannot be declared as unrecognised and election symbol allotted to any political party may not be snatched from and denied to any registered political party.

Rejecting the plea, the Court said that as per settled judgments, political parties cannot consider election symbols as their exclusive property and that the symbol can be lost by a party on account of their dismal performance.

Advocate Siddhant Kumar appeared for ECI and said that the issue was covered by various decisions, including Supreme Court's judgment in Subramanian Swamy v. ECI (2008) and Delhi High Court decision in Samta Party v. ECI (2022).

The bench found merit in Kumar's contention that the issue was no longer res integra and has been concluded by the decisions.

“In view of the above, the petitioner's challenge to the constitutional validity of the Order is rejected. The petition is dismissed,” the Court said.

The plea said that election symbols cannot be denied and snatched from any registered political party on the ground that the party has become unrecognised as it could not secure 6% valid votes in the last election.

“The classification in itself seems to be unnatural and contradictory as to how the party which is a registered political party can become an unrecognised party on the basis that it could not secure a minimum percentage of votes in the last election,” the plea submitted.

It added that the identity and soul of any political party is the name of the political party as well as its symbol which cannot be denied to any registered political party.

“That this petitioner political party was the national party with a symbol of a plough on the shoulder of the farmer but now this symbol of plough on the shoulder of the farmer is denied and snatched away from the petitioner political party on the ground that it has become a registered, unrecognised party and the petitioner political party is compelled to fight the elections without its election symbol and it is compelled to chose a symbol from a list of free symbols,” it said.

Title: Janta Party through its President v. Election Commission of India 

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 54