The Madras High Court on Friday rejected a petition which sought cancellation of allotment of Lotus symbol to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The matter was mentioned before the Vacation Bench of Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy and Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, which refused to entertain the plea.
Petitioner T. Ramesh, founder of the Ahimsa Socialist Party, contended that he moved the High Court after his representations to the Election Commission were not acted upon.
The petitioner submitted that lotus being the national flower represented the entire nation and thus, allotting the lotus symbol to a political party was unjust. Allotting it to a particular party was a disgrace to national integrity.
He contended that a free and fair election was based on equality and thus if one party was discriminated against another party, it would cause gross injustice and also be against Article 14 of the Constitution.
The plea sought cancellation of the lotus symbol allotted to BJP on the grounds that it was necessary to avoid any discrimination.
It further demanded that the same should not be allotted to any political party, whether it was recognised, registered or independent.