The Delhi High Court has directed the Election Commission to hear afresh an application seeking derecognition of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The EC had rejected the application and refused to cancel the party’s registration in July last year.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath set aside the EC’s order on Wednesday, while holding that it had not given any reasons for rejecting the application.
The court has now asked the EC to hear the application afresh and pass an “appropriate reasoned order” within 12 weeks.
The petition had been moved by Jojo Jose, a social worker who alleged that the CPI (M) had secured its registration by “misrepresentation, fraud and forgery”.
The application filed before the EC had claimed that the CPI (M)’s constitution did not contain the provision of true allegiance to the Constitution as mandated by law. However, the counsel for the Election Commission told the court that the poll panel could not go into the issues of fraud and forgery that allegedly took place 20 years ago.
The petitioner, it was said, would have to prove that the party had actually committed fraud or forgery.
