Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: September 5, 2022 at 23:02 IST
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre and Election Commission of India on a writ petition to ban names and symbols with any religious implications for political parties.
A PIL filed by Syed Wazeem Rizvi aiming to impose the mandate of Section 29A, 123(3) and 123(3A) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 (ROPA), which prohibits the luring of voters on the ground of their religion, was considered by the Court.
Senior Advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh, appearing for the petitioner stated that the petition listed that several political parties have religious names.
He further asked, “Can political parties have in their name a religious connotation that violates the RP act and the Constitution?”
He proposed before a bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Murari that two state parties have the word Muslim in their name and also have the logo of crescent moon and star in their official logos.
For example, the Indian Muslim League Party which has several MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and MLAs in Kerala and also the Hindu Ekta Dalal. This leads to polluting of the politics if we don’t pay attention.
The counsel further submitted a judgement of the apex court in the previous case of S. R. Bommai vs. Union of India, “it was held by this court that Secularism is part of the basic feature.”
Citing the text of Section 123 of the RP Act, the bench questioned as to whether the bar will apply to political parties, as the section refers to a candidate. He also asked if the parties are running for election and if that is relevant or not.
The counsel further submitted that if the candidate of a party seeks a vote, they will violate the RP Act and Secularism.
Thereafter, the bench issued a notice returnable on October 18 to the Election Commission of India. They also ordered the petitioner to implead the concerned political parties.