NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court Thursday said it cannot “enter policy domain“, while hearing a petition seeking de-registration of political parties having names with caste, religious, ethnic or linguistic connotations.
The petitioner, advocate Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, sought review of “political parties registered with caste, religious, ethnic or linguistic connotations, and ensure that they are not using a flag similar to the national flag, and de-register them if they fail to change it within three months”.
As the petitioner was focused on the nomenclature, a bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna told the petitioner that “name is not the clincher”.
People don’t vote for just the name of political parties, the bench said. “You must see the policies of the political parties. You will have to see how they are functioning. But all these issues have to be looked into by the Parliament. It is their domain. They make the laws, we don’t,” it added.
The Centre’s counsel said the government does not wish to file a response to the plea . The HC listed the matter for further hearing in May next year. It had earlier issued notices to the Centre and EC, asked them to file their response.