'Publicity Litigation' : Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Against Opposition Parties Calling Their Alliance 'INDIA'

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking to stop 26 opposition political parties from using 'the acronym “I.N.D.I.A" (Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance) as name of their alliance for the campaigning and advertisements, in the upcoming 2024 general Lok Sabha elections.

A Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia observed that the petition has been filed for publicity.

Assertions made in the Petition

As per the petition, since the formation of alliance, the national media, YouTube channels, general public at large, several party workers and the leaders of the Alliance of 26 parties are using the slogans like “It’s going to be NDA vs. INDIA in 2024”, “PM Modi vs. INDIA”, “BJP, can you challenge INDIA” and several other such similar and slogans which are directly or indirectly tarnishing the unity, dignity and most importantly the integrity of our nation in national and international media, only to misuse the name of the nation to gain power.

Further, the petition also stated that the use of name “INDIA” will be against the spirit of Democracy.

Courtroom Exchange

At the commencement of the proceedings, Justice Kaul questioned: “Who is the petitioner…If there is a violation of an election norm then go to the election commission”

“This is all publicity. Complete publicity, nothing else.”

Counsel, appearing for the petitioner, argued that had there been any intention to make a publicity stunt then petitioner could have given interviews to several media houses however; the petitioner has duly refrained from doing do. The Counsel then apprised the bench that similar petitions have been filed before High Court of Delhi and notices have also been issued in the same.

When the bench asked the Counsel if he wants to withdraw the present petition; he replied that he wants to argue the same and requested the bench to hear the petition on merits.

The Counsel argued: “In our nation there is a race going on to look nationalist.”

At this the Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia remarked “How does the judiciary prevent this race from going on”?

The Counsel averred that using the acronym “I.N.D.I.A.,” for naming the political party is against the norms as well as morality. However, the bench rebuffed the Counsel’s statement by saying “We are not going to determine morality here in politics.”

Based on the above circumstances, the Court went on dismiss the same but the Counsel requested to instead withdraw the petition. Thus, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn.

The present petition was filed through AOR DHAWAL UNIYAL.

Case Title: ROHIT KHERIWAL Versus ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA AND ORS, W.P.(C) No. 780/2023