It doesn’t seem too unreasonable at first glance to say that a national symbol should not be used by a political party for political gain. That is essentially what Shaheen Parvez has been saying for some five years now. However, on March 16, 2009, the Supreme Court dismissed a Special Leave Petition she filed on the issue.

It was contended in the SLP that the lotus which is the BJP’s symbol cannot be used by the party because such use would be against the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act. This is the statute which prevents such symbols as the Ashoka Chakra (and a whole host of others) from being used in a number of ways such as in the names of commercial establishments.

This SLP which sought the cancellation of the lotus symbol allotted to the BJP was made against a December 2008 Delhi High Court Order and was dismissed at the admission stage itself by a Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Sirpurkar and Justice Sathashivam.

The petitioner said that she wrote letters to the Election Commission in 2004 and 2005 asking for the cancellation of the symbol but the Commission turned her down saying that the symbol had been reserved by the BJP for some twenty-five years prior to which it had been used by independents. It was after this that the petitioner approached the Delhi High Court. After failing there too, she approached the Supreme Court.

The apex Court, however, did nothing at all towards preventing the party from using the symbol.

Reference: The Hindu; March 17, 2009