The Delhi High Court Thursday sought the Election Commission's (EC) reply on a plea seeking framing of a model procedure for intra-party polls and its incorporation in the constitutions of all the political parties in the country. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the EC and asked it to file reply while listing the petition for further hearing on December 23.
The petitioner informed the court that he has filed the fresh plea as the EC’s reply to his representation was unsatisfactory. He had earlier filed a petition which was disposed of by the court with a direction to the EC to decide it as representation. Petitioner C Rajashekaran, a lawyer who was also one of the founding members of Kamal Haasan's political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), claimed that there was a lack of regulatory oversight by the EC of the internal elections in political parties.
He also claimed that the EC had in 1996 issued a letter to all recognised national and state political parties as well as registered unrecognised parties stating that various provisions relating to the organisational elections were not being followed by them and called upon them to follow their respective constitutions relating to said elections scrupulously. The petition had alleged that internal elections of most parties "are often an eyewash for established political families within the said parties to continue to retain power as the top leadership of said party".
"The lack of internal democracy in political parties, as opposed to other private organisations/ institutions, has a significant bearing on the nation's governance, as the lack of transparency and internal democracy in political parties are often reflected in similar non-democratic governance models when said political parties come to power," the petition contended.
It claimed that data provided by the EC shows that a total of 2,598 political parties are registered in the country with their own distinct symbol provided by the commission. "However, various political parties out of the registered ones do not mandatorily conduct intra-party elections, and as such, no steps have been taken by the Election Commission to address the same," the petition claimed.
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