New Delhi, March 16: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed
a petition that sought freezing of BJP's election symbol
"Lotus" on the ground that it was a "national flower" and its
use during elections was illegal.
"You show us any rule or legislation which says that
lotus is a national flower," a three-judge bench of Chief
Justice K G Balakrishnan, V S Sirpurkar and P Sathasivam
remarked tersely while dismissing the petition filed by
Shaheen Parvez, a woman advocate from Uttar Pradesh.
The petitioner argued that BJP was not entitled to the
"lotus" symbol as it was a "national flower" and using the
same for electoral purposes was violative of the National
Emblem of the Emblems & Names (prevention of improper use) Act
1950.
Shaheen claimed "lotus" was a "national flower" like the
"national animal" (tiger) and "national bird" (peacock.)
She quoted certain mythological texts to claim that lotus
was a divine flower held in high esteem by Indians and hence
should not be "misused" for electoral purposes.
The petitioner through her counsel Irshad Hanif alleged
BJP was using the lotus symbol to "mislead" the voters and
gain political advantage.
According to the petitioner, she had earlier approached
the Election Commission and the Delhi High Court for
preventing BJP from using the symbol but the plea was
dismissed, forcing her to approach the apex court.
However, the apex court found no merit in the argument
and said no violation of any statute is involved to pass
directions as sought by the petitioner.
The Election Commission had on November 22, 2006 rejected
Shaheen's plea on the ground that there was no violation of
any law and "lotus" as an election symbol was in vogue for the
past 25 years.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, March 16, 2009, 00:00