Dispute over Electoral Symbol

• 14 Jul 2022

For Prelims: Election Symbol, ECI, EVMS, Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968

For Mains: Dispute Over Electoral Symbol and Resolution

Why in News?

Recently, a political party has approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) to stake claim on the Party Symbol.

What is an Election Symbol?

• An electoral or election symbol is a standardized symbol allocated to a political party.
• They are used by the parties during their campaigning and are shown on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), where the voter chooses the symbol and votes for the associated party.
• They were introduced to facilitate voting by illiterate people, who can’t read the name of the party while casting their votes.
• In the 1960s, it was proposed that the regulation, reservation and allotment of electoral symbols should be done through a law of Parliament, i.e. Symbol Order.
  • In a response to this proposal, the ECI stated that the recognition of political parties is supervised by the provisions of Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 and so will the allotment of symbols.

What are the EC’s powers in such Disputes?

• The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognize political parties and allot symbols.
  • Under Paragraph 15 of the Order, it can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.
• On deputes among rival groups, the Symbols Order, states that the EC is empowered to take decision after considering all the available facts and circumstances of the case that one rival section or group or none of such rival sections or groups is that recognized political party.
• The decision of the Commission shall be binding on all such rival sections/groups.
  • This applies to disputes between recognized national and state parties.
• For splits in registered but unrecognized parties, the EC usually advises the warring factions to resolve their differences internally or to approach the court.

How does the EC decide?

• The ECI primarily ascertains the support enjoyed by a claimant within a political party in its organizational wing and in its legislative wing.
• For Organizational Wing, the Commission examines the party’s constitution and its list of office-bearers submitted when the party was united.
  • ECI identifies the apex committee(s) in the organisation and finds out how many office-bearers, members or delegates support the rival claimants.
• For the Legislative Wing, the party goes by the number of MPs (Member of Parliaments) and MLAs (Member of Legislative assembly) in the rival camps. ECI may consider affidavits filed by these members to ascertain where they stand.
• The ECI may decide the dispute in favour of one faction by holding that it commands enough support in its organisational and legislative wings to be entitled to the name and symbol of the recognised party.
• It may permit the other group to register itself as a separate political party.

What happens when there is no certainty?

• Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the EC may freeze the party’s symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.

What happens when rival factions Reunited in future?

• If reunited, the claimants may approach the EC again and seek to be recognised as a unified party.
• The EC is also empowered to recognise mergers of groups into one entity. It may restore the symbol and name of the original party.

Source: IE