The Delhi High Court has upheld the "first-come-first-served" criteria for allotting a free symbol to an unrecognized party under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, sitting as a division bench, dismissed the plea filed by Naam Tamilar Katchi, an unrecognized political party. The plea challenged the validity of Explanation (iv) and Proviso 1 to Explanation (iv) of Order 10B (B) of the Election Symbols Order, which sets forth the criteria in question.

The impugned clauses stipulate that if the Election Commission of India (ECI) receives applications from two or more parties expressing a preference for the same symbol on the same date, the allocation of the symbol to one of these parties will be determined by a random draw.

It further adds that “if out of the two or more such parties giving preference for the same symbol whose applications are received on the same date, one party is such that it had been allotted the said symbol at the previous occasion in the State concerned and the other was not allotted that symbol in the previous election, then the symbol shall be allotted to the former.”

The plea additionally requested the annulment of the allocation of the "Ganna Kisan" free election symbol to another unrecognized political party for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The petitioner party argued that, as a registered (unrecognized) state party, it was not entitled to a reserved election symbol. It claimed that it had been assigned the "Ganna Kisan" symbol for the elections held between 2019 and 2023.

The petitioner further requested that the court amend the phrase 'same date' in the contested proviso. Instead, they asked the court to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to collectively consider all valid applications received within the specified window period for the purpose of allotting the election symbol.

On the contrary, the Election Commission of India (ECI) argued that the challenged provisions were not arbitrary or unconstitutional. They contended that the "Ganna Kisan" free symbol was allocated to the other political party because they had submitted their application for it before any other party.

Rejecting the plea, the court noted that the application for the allotment of the free symbol "Ganna Kisan" was indeed submitted by the other political party on December 17, 2023, at 10:01 A.M., while the petitioner party filed theirs on January 09.

Hence, the bench stated that the allocation of a free symbol to the other party was consistent with Explanation (iv) to Paragraph 10B (B) of the Election Symbols Order. The court dismissed the petitioner party's argument that the bench should revise Provisos 1 and 2 to substitute the phrase 'same date' with suitable language to ensure fair consideration of all valid applications received by the ECI within the allowable window period.

“The scheme of Explanation (iv) and its Proviso(s) including the Proviso 1 are consistent, non-discriminatory and apply uniformly to all eligible applicants. The language of the impugned Explanation and Proviso 1 is plain and unambiguous,” the court observed.

Counsel for Petitioner: Ms. Haripriya Padhmanabhan, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Priya R., Mr. Manoj Kumar, Mr. Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj and Mr. Omkar Hemanth, Advocates

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Ankit Agarwal, Standing Counsel for ECI with Mr. Ashish Shukla, Advocate for R-1/ECI

Title: NAAM TAMILAR KATCHI THROUGH ITS PRESIDENT v. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA & ANR.