Kerala HC stays ECI order delisting UDF-affiliated political party

Kochi, Nov 20 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Thursday put on hold an ECI order removing a UDF-affiliated political party from the list of registered political parties.

Justice V G Arun ordered an interim stay of the September 19 decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to mark the Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithi (JSS) as a deslited RUPP in the register of Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPP).

The ECI had delisted the party, which was founded in 1994 by K R Gouri Amma after her expulsion from the CPI(M), as it had not contested in Lok Sabha or assembly elections in the state in the last six years.

The party, challenging the ECI decision, had contended that the commission was not empowered to delist or deregister a political party.

It had also claimed that failure to contest in Lok Sabha or assembly polls for six consecutive years was not a ground for delisting a political party.

After hearing the petitioner party, the ECI and State Election Commission, the High Court said that there was "no provision for cancellation of registration" in section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The High Court also said that the commission's reliance on the Symbols Order to trace its power for cancellation of registration "also appears to be prima facie unsustainable".

"There shall be an interim stay of operation of Order No F No 56/Delisting/2025/PPS-III issued by the Election Commission of India, to the extent the petitioner is taken off from the list of Registered Political Parties and marked as 'DELISTED RUPPs'," the court said.

The order was issued "to enable the candidates of the petitioner to contest in the ongoing local bodies election, in the symbols allotted to the parties by the State Election Commission, if those symbols have not already been allotted to other parties," it added.

It listed the matter for further hearing on January 5, 2026, to consider the larger question as to whether the ECI's plenary powers are "boundless and beyond the purview of judicial review". PTI HMP SSK HMP SSK KH