In months leading to Lok Sabha election, SC batted for fair and level playing field

The months leading to the Lok Sabha election has seen the Supreme Court set aside its usual selfimposed restraint to step in and level the playing field for the sake of electoral democracy.

“Where issues crop up, indicating unjust executive action or an attempt to disturb a level playing field between candidates and/ or political parties with no justifiable or intelligible basis, the constitutional courts are required, nay they are dutybound, to step in,” a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said in a judgment in September last year.

The Bench was dealing with the nonallocation of the ‘plough’ symbol to the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party ahead of polls to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil.

Justice Amanullah, who wrote the judgment for the Bench, dismissed the petition filed by the Union Territory of Ladakh and declared the party’s exclusive entitlement to the symbol for its candidates.

On electoral bonds

A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud swept out anonymity in the political funding with its judgment in February declaring the electoral bonds scheme “manifestly arbitrary and unconstitutional”. The court agreed with the petitioners that the huge difference in the anonymous political donations received by ruling parties both at the Centre and the States has vitiated the level playing field, subverted democracy and left the idea of free and fair elections gasping for dear life.

Having fought the Indian National Congress in the Delhi High Court despite allegations of “tax terrorism”, the Income Tax department unexpectedly decided to temporarily halt its pursuit of the main Opposition party for ₹3,500 crore raised against it in tax demands. The court promptly listed the case for July 24, well after the election.

In March and April, a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant cautioned Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the nephew of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, to fight his uncle true and fair at the polls.

The court told the younger Pawar to not “ride piggyback” on the shoulders of the NCP patriarch, using the latter’s photos on the pamphlets and notices of his faction.

Symbol issue

The Bench directed the Election Commission to allow the Sharad Pawar faction to fight the Lok Sabha polls under the ‘man blowing a turha’ symbol and title ‘Nationalist Congress PartySharadchandra Pawar’. Besides, it ordered Mr. Ajit Pawar to include a rider that the NCP’s original symbol ‘clock’ was still under legal contest in the Supreme Court.

The top court had pointed out in judgments like Edappadi K. Palaniswami v T.T.V. Dhinakaran that party symbols during elections hold a prime place in a country where illiteracy was still very high.

“The use of a symbol, be it a donkey or an elephant, does give rise to a unifying effect amongst the people with a common political and economic programme,” the court had said.

The court’s drive to maintain a level and fair playing field percolated to even local body elections. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud declared Aam Aadmi Party’s Kuldeep Kumar as the new Chandigarh Mayor, refusing the BJP’s plea for a fresh election. It also initiated action against the Returning Officer, caught on camera tampering with ballots to favour BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar.

“This court is dutybound to ensure that the process of electoral democracy is not thwarted by subterfuges,” the Supreme Court had observed.