Date: 11/10/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Separation of powers between various organs, Dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.

Key Phrases: Election Commission, Electoral symbol, Political party, Election ballots, Reserved, Free, Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, Political parties, National party, State party, Section 15, Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI, Permanent and independent body.

Why in News?

• Why the Election Commission was right to freeze the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol in the match between the two factions of the Shiv Sena.

Context:

• The “bow and arrow” symbol of the Shiv Sena has been claimed by rival groups after a split in the party.
• Recently, the Supreme Court, on a petition filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction, too had ruled that the EC is the proper authority to adjudicate on such matters.
• The apex court will, however, continue to hear the case of disqualification of legislators aligned with the Eknath Shinde Sena faction.

Electoral symbol:

• An electoral symbol is a standardised symbol allocated to an independent candidate or political party by a country's election commission for use in election ballots.
• Symbols are used by parties in their campaigning, and printed on ballot papers where a voter must make a mark to vote for the associated party.
• One of their purposes is to facilitate voting by illiterate people, who cannot read candidates' names on ballot papers.
• Types of Symbols: As per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) (Amendment) Order, 2017, party symbols are either:
  • Reserved: Eight National parties and 54 State parties across the country have “reserved” symbols.
  • Free: The Election Commission also has a pool of nearly 200 “free” symbols that are allotted to the thousands of unrecognised regional parties that pop up before elections.

Law related to Electoral symbol:

• 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 is the allotment of symbols.
• The Election Commission registers political parties for the purpose of elections and grants them recognition as national or state parties on the basis of their poll performance. The other parties are simply declared as registered-unrecognised parties.
• The recognition determines their right to certain privileges like allocation of the party symbols, provision of time for political broadcasts on television and radio stations and access to electoral rolls.
• Every national party and every state party is allotted a symbol exclusively reserved for its use throughout the country and the states respectively.

Election Commission power in case of dispute over election symbols:

• The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognise political parties and allot symbols.
• Section 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, authorises the EC to decide which faction constitutes the recognised party in the event of rival groups making a claim for the mother organisation, its name, flag and symbol.
• The EC is the only authority to decide issues on a dispute or a merger under the order. The EC decision is binding on all the parties.
• In several judgments, the SC has upheld the EC’s authority on the matter and the test of majority principle it follows to arrive at a decision.
• The Supreme Court (SC) upheld EC decision validity in Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI in 1971.
• In almost all disputes decided by the EC so far, a clear majority of party delegates/office bearers, MPs and MLAs have supported one of the factions.
• The splinter group of the party - other than the group that got the party symbol - had to register itself as a separate party.
• Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the ECI 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
• In 2017, the EC had frozen the two-leaves symbol of AIADMK when rival factions sought it ahead of a by-poll in Tamil Nadu.
• This precedent was followed last October when a dispute arose over the custodianship of LJP in Bihar.

ELECTION COMMISSION

• Election Commission is a permanent and independent body.
• The formation of EC is prescribed by Article 324 of the constitution.
• It is common to both central and state governments.
• The elections to parliament, state legislatures, the office of president, and vice president are looked after by EC.
• Originally the commission had only one election commissioner but after the Election Commissioner Amendment Act 1989, it has been made a multi-member body.
• EC consists of
  • Chief election commissioner
  • Other election commissioners.
• The appointment of the chief election commissioner as well as the other election commissioners is made by the President.
• They have a fixed tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
• They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India.

Way Forward:

• However, considering the stakes in the battle, the EC’s actions are likely to come under close scrutiny. Its hard-won reputation of being a fair and independent institution becomes extremely relevant.
• In an intensely competitive polity, especially when parties are vulnerable to defections and splits, how the EC interprets the law and convention on such matters will have a bearing not only in the immediate Sena case but also on public trust in institutions — and the democratic process itself.

Source: Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. In the light of recent controversy regarding the disputes among rival groups over symbols, what are the powers of Election Commission of India to decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol?