The Election Commission order had declared Mani’s group of Jos as the official Kerala Congress (Mani) and granted it the official election symbol of ‘two leaves’.
The Supreme Court on Monday confirmed the Election Commission (EC) order by the Kerala High Court, Jose K. Declared a group led by Mani as the official Kerala Congress (Mani) and gave it the official election symbol of ‘two leaves’.
In a brief hearing, Chief Justice of India Sharad A. A bench headed by Bobde rejected PJ Joseph’s appeal, stating that two benches of the High Court had agreed to uphold the order of the Commission.
Senior advocate Shyam Dewan, appearing on behalf of Mr. Joseph, submitted that the High Court quashed the inquiry into whether the Election Commission order was as per law or not. He said the commission’s decision was “unfounded”.
“We do not agree with you,” replied Chief Justice Bobde.
The Election Commission, by a 2: 1 majority, held that Jose K. The group led by Mani was the official Kerala Congress (Mani) and is entitled to use the name and reserved symbol ‘Two Leaves’ for this purpose. Election Marks (Reservation and Allocation) Order, 1968 ”.
Mr. Joseph had argued in the High Court that the commission made a mistake by going directly to test the majority without considering the criterion of the constitution. The majority test was conducted with a truncated body and was based on faulty and irrelevant affidavits given by Mr. Jose.
Mr. Joseph had submitted that the Election Commission had no right to allocate a party to a person. The only jurisdiction vested with it was to allocate the symbol to a party.
Furthermore, the Commission was not authorized or empowered to decide the internal issues of the party. The issue of name did not come under the symbol law. The party received the name in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and makes it the property of the party.
The commission should not have indirectly passed a civil court order recognizing him as the president of the party. He was the elected executive chairman of the party, exercising the powers of the chairman while discharging functions and adhering to the constitution of the party, defended by Mr. Joseph in the High Court.
Leave a Reply