[BREAKING] Delhi High Court dismisses plea seeking de-registration of YSR Congress Party

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking de-registration of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy's Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party (Anna YSR Congress Party v. Election Commission). .The judgment was pronounced by a single-judge Bench of Justice Prateek Jalan in the petition preferred by Anna YSR Congress Party (petitioner)..The Court found that the plea was "entirely without merit" and dismissed same..It was the petitioner's grievance that despite the Election Commission barring it from adopting “YSR Congress Party” as its name, the party was doing so illegally and unlawfully on its letterheads, campaign material, and other collaterals of party administration..The petitioner also asserted that "YSR Congress" was an integral part of its “Anna YSR Congress Party”, and that the party in power has been misappropriating the name before the world at large..Arguing that Reddy's party was guilty of clear, wilful, pre-mediated, deliberate and conscious disobedience to adhere to lawful directions and instructions of the Election Commission, the petitioner claimed that the YSR Congress should be de-recognized as political party under Para 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968..The Election Commission submitted that for the registration and recognition of political parties, it was was not concerned with the abbreviated names which parties may use, but with the names under which the political parties are registered..Jaganmohan Reddy's party contended that the writ petition was motivated by extraneous considerations in view of its electoral success in the general elections to the Lok Sabha, as well as the State elections in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2019..In its order, the Court opined that Election Commission's stand that it was not concerned with abbreviated names was s not arbitrary and unreasonable, so as to require interference by this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution..It also held that a communication sent by the Commisison to Jaganmohan Reddy's party, asking him them not to use the abbreviated form of the name to avoid any confusion in the documentation was not a binding direction. ."..the allegation is of violation of a direction which the ECI itself does not regard as binding upon Respondent No. 2, or applicable to the grievances raised by the petitioner. In such circumstances, the case does not fall within the limited exceptions laid out by the Court.", the Court said. .The Court also considered that at the time when the petitioner sought registration as a political party with the name “Anna YSR Congress Party”, it was well aware that Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party was already registered as political party and used YSR abbreviation. .Petitioner was represented by Advocates PB Suresh, Vipin Nair, Karthik Jayashankar, Arindam Ghosh..Election Commission was represented by Advocate Sidhant Kumar, Manyaa Chandok. .Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party was represented by Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar with Advocates Mahfooz A Nazki, Gowtham Polanki, Amitabh Sinha, Shrey Sharma..Read the judgement: