On Monday, November 14, 2022, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India to file its response to a writ petition seeking a ban on political parties that use religiously charged names and symbols. A division bench of Justices MR Shah and Hima Kohli proceeded to postpone the matter to November 25, citing the petition's importance.

During the hearing, the Democratic Social Justice Party, a state-recognized political party from Kerala, sought to intervene and assist the court in the matter, but the Bench refused.

As the matter drew to a close today, the counsel for the ECI requested more time to file the counter, i.e., beyond the time granted by the Court. The Court took this as an opportunity to remind the counsel how the ECI is an agency that is strictly time-bound.

The petition also requests that certain provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, be strictly enforced, which prohibit luring voters and promoting feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of citizens on the basis of religion. During the previous hearing, Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, who represented the petitioner, stated that two recognised state parties have the word "Muslim" in their names. Some political parties' official flags feature a crescent moon and stars. According to him, the petition named several other parties with religious names. He also placed reliance on the Supreme Court bench judgement in S. R. Bommai vs. Union of India and submitted that "it was held by this court that Secularism is part of the basic feature".

Case Title: Syed Waseem Rizwi v. ECI And Anr.

Citation: WP(C) No. 908/2021 PIL