Madras High Court today dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to ECI to review its decision of allotting permanent symbols to political parties.
The petition was filed by "Traffic" Ramaswamy, a social activist, seeking a direction to the ECI to review its decision of allotting permanent symbols to the national and state political parties.
"The petitioner without waiting for a reasonable time, has chosen to file this petition. This is nothing but misuse of judicial process," the First Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sathish K Agnihotri and Justice M M Sunderesh said.
Ramaswamy submitted that AIADMK General Secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is misusing the official powers by introducing party symbol in government schemes with a view that the symbols permanently allotted to it cannot be changed.
While mentioning about several projects which were named as "AMMA", he wondered how the schemes and projects of the State Government could be used for election propaganda.
While independent candidates were allotted new symbols, national and state level parties were given permanent symbols for years together, he submitted.
Till date, rules regarding symbol allocation were not changed, he submitted.
The court, quoting a judgment of a seven member constitution bench of the Supreme Court, said "in case of statutory representation or appeal, the minimum period required for response is three to six months. Even if the period is not prescribed, those authorities should be given a breathing time, that is reasonable time, to consider and pass orders on the representations made which is going to have a far reaching effect in the election system".
Stating that the petitioner did not wait "for a reasonable period" of time before filing the plea, the court dismissed the PIL saying, "This is nothing but misuse of judicial process," and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Ramaswamy.
Later, on a request from Ramaswamy, the fine was cancelled by the Bench.
