The Odisha High Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the matter pertaining to the rejection of the State Election Commission (SEC) in denying Odisha Jan Morcha to contest the forthcoming Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on its allotted party symbol ‘Kite’.
A Division Bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice AK Goel and justice AK Rath, however, allowed the SEC to consider the prayer of the political party in using the allotted symbol if the prayer is found viable.
“The SEC though not technically bound to do so in absence of procedure but is free to consider the prayer of the petitioner in the interest of avoiding confusion if such prayer is found viable,” the HC said, disposing of the writ petition filed by the political party.
The SEC on Monday had informed Pyarimohan Mohapatra’s newly-formed political party that it cannot contest the BMC election on its allotted party symbol. The party on December 12 was allotted the symbol and the same was intimated to the SEC on the next day. But by that time the SEC had come out with the notification for the BMC election and as per Section 47 of the Odisha Municipality Act, the design of the symbol should have been given six months prior to the dissolution of the BMC Council.
However, challenging the SEC order, the OJM had approached the High Court stating that the SEC order was illegal and arbitrary. In a writ petition, the OJM had urged the HC to quash the impugned order of the SEC.