Delhi HC issues notice to CEC on plea seeking inclusion of party name in MCD poll candidate list

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the State Election Commission (SEC) on a plea moved by Aapki Apni Party (Peoples). The petitioner has moved the court as the party's name is not mentioned in the list for MCD polls and the candidates' names have been shown as independent candidates with the party symbol. The petitioner has challenged this.

The Division bench of Chief Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and Subramonium Prasad issued notice to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and State Election commission on the plea.

Advocate Siddhant Kumar accepted notice for CEC. The bench has listed the matter on April 6, 2023 for further hearing.

The petitioner through advocate Daleep Dhyani has challenged the non-inclusion of the party name. It sought a direction to the commission to include the party name along with the name of the candidates nominated by the party for MCD election 2022.

The petition submitted that CEC on 19.11.2022 published a list of contesting candidates for different Wards and at Column No.4 of the form 7, the candidates nominated/selected by the petitioner are shown as 'Independent' and not as a nominee or the member of the petitioner.

Petitioner said that being a National Party, it has been contesting in other States and its candidates have been contesting as a candidate in other States as well.

Recently, the candidates selected by the petitioner in the State of Maharashtra have contested bye-election to the Andheri East Assembly Constituency, 2022, the petition said.

It is argued that the petitioner being aggrieved by the action of the CEC for not including the name of the petitioner in the list of candidates submitted a representation on 22.11.2022 before the State Election Commission.

It is said that the action of the State election commission by not declaring the name of the political party of which the candidate is a member or nominee, is arbitrary, discriminatory and also infringes on the fundamental rights of the members of the party.

It is further averred that the candidates should not be discriminated on the basis of recognized or unrecognized parties.

As a matter of fact the petitioner is a registered party from the CEC which has granted recognition to the petitioner under Section 29(A) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 as a political party.

It is said that the entire actions of the respondents in proceeding with the election process is a mala fide action as the names of the candidates nominated by the petitioner arenot shown along with the party name and thus, this court has jurisdiction to decide the present case by directing the respondents to include the names of the petitioner along with the name of the candidates.

Otherwise also the candidates nominated by the petitioner will not be recognized so also the petitioner's recognition will also be not known in the general public, if the candidates selected/nominated by the petitioner are shown as independent candidates in the list of candidates prepared for the MCD election of 2022, the petition said.

( With inputs from ANI )

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