Produce records on registration of SAD as party, Delhi HC tells EC

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 24

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission (EC) to produce records pertaining to registration of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) as a political party on Wednesday.

A Bench of Justices J Pradeep Nandrajog and J Mukta Gupta passed the order while hearing a PIL for de-registration of the SAD as a political party for its alleged links with Sikhism in violation of the Representation of People (RP) Act, 1951.

The Bench has sought the information to decide if the registration of parties by the EC was a quasi-judicial or a statutory exercise.

SAD’s senior counsel P Vishwanatha Shetty contended that the registration was statutory in nature and, therefore, not open to judicial review.

Petitioner Balwant Singh Khera’s counsel Indira Unninayar, however, pleaded that such registration under Section 29(A)(5) of the RP Act was a quasi-judicial one, subject to judicial scrutiny. This was the finding of the Supreme Court in a 2002 judgment on the registration of the Congress as a party.

The SC had ruled that the EC had no power to cancel the registration, barring three exceptions, including “fraud” on the part of the body seeking recognition as a political party, Unninayar pleaded.

According to the petitioner, the SAD had secured registration by withholding from the EC its ‘old’ constitution under which only Sikhs were allowed to join the party. The party had aligned itself to the Sikh religion also by participating in gurdwara elections despite the fact that this was against the existing laws.

“The Shiromani Akali Dal was formed out of the SGPC in the 1920s as a religio-political party, but it has failed to sever its links from the Sikh religion, and is very closely and publicly aligned with the Sikh religion even today,” in violation of the RP Act, the PIL contended.

Under Section 29(A) of the Act, every political party gives an undertaking to the EC declaring its allegiance to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy to obtain registration. The SAD gave this undertaking despite its continued association with the religion, the PIL said and pleaded that the registration of the political party be set aside.

The SAD has repudiated the contentions.