Delhi High Court Rejects Plea For Allotment Of Permanent Election Symbol To Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party

The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking allotment of permanent election symbol of sewing machine to Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party which should not be allotted to any other person or political party.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela refused to entertain an appeal filed by Dr. SR Saran- President of the political party.

Saran had challenged an order passed by the single judge on October 01 last year dismissing his plea seeking the relief.

As the Bench was not inclined to entertain the plea, Saran's counsel withdrew the appeal.

“After arguments, the counsel appearing for the appellant seeks to withdraw the appeal. Accordingly, the LPA is dismissed as withdrawn,” the Court said.

Advocate Suruchi Suri appeared for Election Commission of India (ECI).

In the appeal, Saran contended that the political party has contested regular elections in the national capital and other States from more than 20 years and got the election symbol of Sewing Machine.

It said that when the party approached the ECI for permanent allotment of the election symbol, no satisfactory reply was given.

The party had alleged in the plea that the ECI had “malafide intention” of allotting the election symbol- sewing machine to any other political party or other candidates.

Vide the impugned order, the single judge had rejected the petition, observing that the allotment of reserved symbols is confined to the National and State parties in the Symbols Order.

The single judge had referred to the Supreme Court judgment in Subramanian Swamy v. ECI wherein it was held that a reserved symbol is available only for a recognised political party and Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party was admittedly not a recognised party leader in either category.

Title: Dr. S.R. Sharan v. Election Commission of India & Anr.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 90