SC upholds EC order on official KC (M)

The Supreme Court on Monday confirmed an Election Commission order declaring a group led by Jose Mani as the official Kerala Congress (M) by the Kerala High Court and granted it an official election symbol of ‘two leaves’. .

In a brief hearing, Chief Justice of India Sharad A. A bench headed by Bobde rejected Mr. Joseph’s appeal, stating that two benches of the High Court upheld the order of the Election 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 termed the decision of the Election Commission as baseless.

“We do not agree with you,” replied Chief Justice Bobde.

The Election Commission, by a 2: 1 majority, held that the Mani-led group of Jose 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 Allotment) 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 constitution’s criterion. 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, discharging the functions and exercising the powers of the chairman and following the constitution of the party, defended by Mr. Joseph in the High Court.