The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of registration of Aam Aadmi Party for allegedly using forged documents, observing that a “political party is like a club” and the law is clear that courts will not interfere in its “indoor management”.
“We do not find any merit in the petition and rather find it to be thoroughly misconceived and dismiss the same with costs of Rs 5,000 payable to Delhi State Legal Services Authority within three months of today,” a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said.
“A political party is like a club and in respect where to the law is clear that the courts will not interfere in its indoor management,” it said.
The judgment came on the plea filed by one Hans Raj Jain, who had sought cancellation alleging that the “registration of AAP was allowed (by the Election Commission of India) in a hurried manner on the basis of false and fabricated documents without making any proper enquiries”.
Jain had claimed that there were discrepancies in residential addresses given by some AAP members in their affidavits when compared to the addresses given in their voter identity cards or income tax returns.
The bench, relying on a Supreme Court judgment, held that Section 29A(9) of Representation of People Act requires a registered political party to communicate to Election Commission of India about any change in its name, head office, office bearers, address or any other material matter but it does not enjoin any corresponding duty on the ECI to exercise any such power over the political parties.
The bench said that the objection of the petitioner that the elections of the Executive Committee of AAP were held arbitrarily without adopting democratic procedure is of no avail.
“Guidelines of ECI regarding registration of political party inter alia require that there should be a specific provision in the rules/constitution of the association or body of persons seeking registration as political party regarding internal democracy in the party, organisational elections at different levels, mode of such elections etc.
“But there is nothing, either in Section 29A or in the said guidelines requiring an inquiry to be conducted into the fairness and validity of the elections held for the post of office bearers of such political party,” the bench said.
The court said that the guidelines require the application for registration to be accompanied with individual affidavits from at least 100 members of the party but there is again no requirement for the EC to investigate the validity of the affidavits prior to registration.
