The Delhi High Court on April 18 , dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction from the State Election Commission to remove election symbol from the ballot paper in the municipal elections in Delhi.
The bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla dismiss the petition filed by Alka Gehlot , who was an Ex-Contestant of the last municipal election held in 2017
The Petitioner further sought removal of the unit of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the municipal elections in National Capital.
According to the Plea ,the election symbols are not required in the presence of photographs of the candidate and the presence of a reserved election symbol is ultra-virus the provisions of law enshrined in the Constitution of India and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC), Act 1957.
It is alleged in the PIL that the presence of a reserved election symbol is the root cause of corruption in the Corporation.
The PIL further stated that the population of Delhi is growing exponentially and the Municipal Government cannot escape responsibility as most of the Corporators are indulged in property dealing or have nexus with them.
The petitioner, had earlier approached the Delhi HC in 2019 and that petition was disposed of by the court with a direction to the Respondents to look into the grievance of the petitioner.