The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition aimed at restraining the Election Commission of India (ECI) from allotting election symbols that had been reserved for certain political parties to members or office-bearers of other parties on the basis of an electoral understanding reached between those parties.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad refused to entertain the case at the admission stage itself on the ground that a writ of prohibition could not be issued against the ECI on the basis of an apprehension that Returning Officers might allot reserved symbols even to non-members of the parties concerned.
Recording the submission of the ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan that it was for the individual Returning Officers concerned to take a call on allotment of symbols to the candidates, the judges said, any irregular allotment could only be challenged by way of an election petition and not through writ petitions before the High Court.
M.L. Ravi, president of an outfit called Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, had filed the petition claiming that cross allocation of election symbols between political parties had happened during the 2016 elections to the Legislative Assembly. Hence, his party had sent a representation to the ECI in that regard on May 23, 2016.
Now, once again, many political parties in the State had openly declared that their alliance partners would be contesting in some of the Lok Sabha seats during the ensuing elections on their reserved symbols, the petitioner said and claimed that such a practice was impermissible under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order of 1968.
