Delhi, 24 January (H.S.): Delhi High Court has rejected the petition demanding permanent allocation of sewing machine election symbol to Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party. On Friday, a bench headed by Justice DK Upadhyay ordered the dismissal of this petition.

This petition was filed by Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party President Dr. SR Sharan. The petition challenged the order of the single bench of the High Court. It was said in the petition that Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party has contested many elections in Delhi and other states for more than twenty years. In these elections, the party has been contesting on the sewing machine election symbol.

In the petition, Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party had demanded from the Election Commission to permanently allocate the sewing machine election symbol and not to allocate this election symbol to any other party. The petition said that in this election, the Election Commission acted arbitrarily and refused to give the sewing machine election symbol to the Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party and allotted this election symbol to another party and candidate.

The Rashtriya Bahujan Congress Party challenged the decision of the Election Commission in a single bench of the Delhi High Court. The single bench rejected the petition and said that the election symbol is permanently allotted to a party recognized at the national and state level. The single bench, referring to the decision of Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission, ordered the dismissal of the petition. This order of the single bench was challenged in the division bench of the High Court.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar