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A plea has been filed in the Top Court that seeks for direction to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) for taking steps to regulate poll manifesto and make political parties accountable for promises they make in the same.

The plea has been moved by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, seeking direction to the Election Commission to seize the poll symbol and deregister/derecognise the political parties that fail to fulfil their promises made in manifesto,

“Direct to the Election Commission to seize the election symbol and derecognize/deregister the political parties, which fail to fulfil their essential rational promises, made in their election manifesto.”

The plea contends that, the Centre and the ECI have not taken steps to regulate political parties' manifesto.

"Petitioner submits that election manifesto is a vision document to achieve the particular goals if the political party gets elected. It is a published declaration of the intentions, motives and views of the political party and government," the plea states.

The plea further avers that, “The political parties must refrain from giving exaggerated promises as it may burden the public money kept in state funds, during times of financial distress. It also agreed that not all promises are corrupt, but many are and so guidelines must be given by election commission.”

The petition states that, the Aam Aadmi Party promised Janlokpal Bill-Swaraj Bill in 2013, 2015 and 2020 election manifesto but did nothing to effectuate them.

“This is happening in all states because neither the Centre has enacted a law to regulate the functioning of political parties and their election manifesto nor has the ECI made any guideline,” it said.

"It currently has absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, even if it is short of numbers in the Rajya Sabha. In such a situation, what would be the legal hassle if someone takes the BJP to Court seeking fulfilment of the promise? Let it, at least, introduce a UCC Bill and leave it to the machinations of parliamentary democracy, to be settled in due course," the plea contends.

"An election manifesto is a window for voters to see through a political party's governance agenda to make an informed decision. Voting is a transactional act. Once a vote is cast on the basis of the transactional value the voter sees in the party, a legal contract arguably comes into existence if the said party forms the ruling government," it added.

Keeping in view the above stated facts, the petitioners prayed for the following relief,

• Direct and declare that the Election Manifesto is a vision document, a published declaration of the intentions, motives and views of the political party and used to achieve the particular goals, if political party gets elected. Hence, it is statutory and legally enforceable;
• Direct Ministry of Law & Justice to take appropriate steps to regulate the functioning of registered and recognized political parties and to make them accountable for essential rational manifesto promises;
• Alternatively, direct the Election Commission of India to use its plenary constitutional power to frame guidelines to regulate the functioning of registered and recognized political parties and to make them accountable for essential rational manifesto promises.

[Case Title - Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India]