New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected
the plea of former Andhra Pradesh Congress leader Y S
Jaganmohan Reddy for allotment of a common symbol to his newly
floated party 30 days in advance, instead of the usual two
weeks, to fight next month`s by-election.
The by-election to Kadapah Lok Sabha and Pulivendla
Assembly constitutencies has been necessiated following the
resignation of Jaganmohan Reddy and his mother Vijaylakshmi.
By-elections to the two constituencies are scheduled
on May 8 and the mother and son duo are contesting again from
their respective seats of Pulivenla and Kadapah under the
banner of Jagan`s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party also
known as YSR Congress Party.
Jaganmohan, through senior counsel P S Patwalia,
submitted the common symbol for the party from among the list
of free symbols be alloted immediately instead of in usual
two weeks time to enable the candidates reach out to voters.
He sought a direction to the Election Commission of
India for early allotment of the symbol.
A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph
however, found no merit in the argument and the asked the
petitioner to approach the Election Commission with the plea.
The counsel then relented and withdrew the petition.
However,counsel for the EC Meenakshi Arora told the
bench that there was no provision under the law to make such
allotment.
Section 10(a)of the Election Symbol (Reservation and
Allotment) Order, 1968 provides that the symbol to the
candidate set by the registered unrecognized political party
"shall be allotted not later than the third day after the
publication of the notification calling the election."
Resultantly, the candidate set up by the registered
party may not able to get the symbol not more then two weeks
prior to the election even though he/she may have chosen his
symbol from the list of free symbols, counsel Sateesh Galla
and N Raja Raman said in their application before the court.
According to the counsel, allotment of the common
symbol in advance would help the candidates reach out to
voters easily through the symbols as most of them
are illiterate.
PTI
