The Delhi High Court has clarified that the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not possess the authority to oversee whether a political party is adhering to its own constitution. This decision came in a judgment delivered by Justice Jyoti Singh, emphasizing that the ECI’s role under the Representation of People (RP) Act is limited to the registration of political parties and does not extend to supervising their internal governance.
Justice Singh pointed out that Section 29A of the RP Act, which governs the registration of political parties, does not provide the ECI with supervisory powers to check if a party follows its constitution or to review its internal elections. The ruling was part of a judgment in a case brought by Parvendra Pratap Singh, the national president of the Bahujan Mukti Party, who had sought directions for the ECI to intervene in the party’s internal affairs.
The petitioner had requested the ECI to issue a notice for convening a meeting of the party’s national working committee and to oversee the election of office bearers as per the party’s constitutional guidelines. Additionally, the petition asked for the ECI to recognize the newly elected office bearers from a 2022 internal election.
However, the court dismissed these requests, citing the lack of jurisdiction by the ECI to meddle in the internal matters of political parties, which are considered beyond its statutory scope as outlined in the RP Act. The ECI’s counsel had argued against the petition’s maintainability, stating that the commission cannot be compelled to resolve internal party disputes.
In its decision, the court also referenced a prior judgment from its division bench, affirming that internal disputes within political parties are outside the ECI’s remit and that any grievances should be addressed through civil remedies instead.
