Alleged misuse of poll symbols: HC notice to 5 political parties

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has issued a notice to the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP ), the Congress, the Samajwadi Party(SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party of India(CPI) on a plea against alleged misuse of reserved election symbols by political parties. These five parties are the respondents in the plea.

A division bench of justice Vikram Nath and justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan passed the order on Monday on a writ petition filed in 2016 by a local lawyer Shraddha Tripathi.

The petitioner submitted that under Clause 4 of the 'Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment ) Order, 1968', the allotment of symbols was made in every contested election to a candidate in accordance with the provisions of the said order and different symbols shall be allotted to different candidates at an election in the same constituency. A reserved symbol is allotted to a recognised political party exclusively for the purpose of contesting an election by its candidates and the symbol can be used by the candidate only when the elections are notified and they are to be used in the area where the elections are notified, the petitioner added. The petitioner alleged that these reserved symbols were being misused by the political parties, which was against the said order of 1968, the petitioner said.

A RESERVED SYMBOL IS ALLOTTED TO A RECOGNISED PARTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTESTING AN ELECTION