COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST LENINIST) (LIBERATION) Vs. STATE ELECTION COMMISSION, U.T.CHANDIGARH AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India where the petitioner desires that para 4(d) of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 2016 be declared as unconstitutional. The said para is extracted here below :-

(2.) The petitioner claims itself to be a registered political party which has fought several elections in the State as well and pleads that the aforesaid clause in so far as it treats a registered political party and an independent candidate on the same footing in the matter of allotment of symbols, is discriminatory as they would have a preferential right over other independent candidates to gain access to a symbol. It is argued that in not doing so the registered political parties faced a disadvantage in the electoral arena. It is argued that the Election Commission of India in Election Symbols and the Allotment Order, 1968 offers a preferential treatment to the registered political parties in terms of Paragraph 12 thereof which we also extract here below :-

(3.) From the above it is sought to be contended that once the Election Commission of India acknowledges the registered political parties to give them a preferential treatment in the matter of allotment of symbols, the other election commissions are bound by the same and no order can be made by any State election commission that is not in conformity with the 1968 Order passed by the Election Commission of India. Even though this argument has been raised but it is candidly conceded by the learned counsel for the petitioner that every election commission of the State would have powers to make its own rules.