The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction from the State Election Commission to remove election symbol from the ballot paper, including the unit of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the municipal elections in the national capital.
Earlier the court had issued notices to the respondents in the matter.
The bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla on Monday decided to dismiss the petition.
The plea stated that the election symbols are not required in the presence of photographs of the candidate and the presence of a reserved election symbol is ultra-virus the provisions of law enshrined in the Constitution of India and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC), Act 1957. The presence of a reserved election symbol is the root cause of corruption in the Corporation.
The petitioner, Alka Gehlot was an Ex-Contestant of the last municipal election held in 2017 had earlier too approached the Delhi HC in 2019 and that petition was disposed of by the court with a direction to the Respondents (including State Election Commission, Delhi) to look into the grievance of the petitioner.
Advocate HS Gehlot represented the petitioner and stated, "The DMC Act 1957 provides that the councillors be chosen by direct election on the basis of adult suffrage from various wards which the corporation comprises of, without any preference to candidates of political parties. Hence, The SEC ought to conduct an election to elect a candidate and not a party. The presence of reserved symbol on the ballot paper is a blatant violation of Fundamental Rights and other constitutional rights of the people."
The plea further stated that the population of Delhi is growing exponentially in violation of the NCR Planning Board Act, 1985 and the Municipal Government cannot escape responsibility as most of the Corporators are indulged in property dealing or have nexus with them. As a result of unplanned growth Delhi has become one of the most polluted cities in the world, it added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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