The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by Dr. SR Saran, President of the Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party, requesting the permanent allotment of the sewing machine election symbol to the party, with the condition that it should not be granted to any other individual or political party.

A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela declined to entertain the appeal.

Saran had appealed against an order passed by a single judge on October 1 of the previous year, which had rejected his request for relief.

As the bench showed no inclination to entertain the plea, Saran's counsel chose to withdraw the appeal.

“After arguments, the counsel appearing for the appellant seeks to withdraw the appeal. Accordingly, the LPA is dismissed as withdrawn,” the Court said.

Advocate Suruchi Suri represented the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the case. In his appeal, Saran argued that the political party had been contesting regular elections in Delhi and other states for over 20 years and had been allotted the sewing machine election symbol.

He claimed that when the party approached the ECI for the permanent allotment of the symbol, it received no satisfactory response.

The party had claimed in its plea that the ECI acted with "malafide intention" by considering the allotment of the sewing machine election symbol to another political party or candidate. In the challenged order, the single judge rejected the petition, noting that the allotment of reserved symbols is limited to national and state parties under the Symbols Order.

The judge also referenced the Supreme Court's ruling in Subramanian Swamy v. ECI, which established that reserved symbols are only available to recognized political parties. Since the Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party was not recognized in either category, the petition was dismissed.