Registered Unrecognized Political Parties declared inactive

Registered Unrecognized Political Parties declared inactive

Subject : Polity

Context: As part of its action for ensuring due compliance by Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs), the Election Commission of India (ECI) led by Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, has delisted 86 non-existent RUPPs and declared another 253 as ‘Inactive RUPPs’.

Concept:

What are Registered Unrecognized Political Parties? 

A newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in the assembly or general elections to become a state party, or those which have never contested elections since being registered are considered unrecognised parties. Such parties don’t enjoy all the benefits extended to the recognised parties.

Registration of political parties

• A party seeking registration has to submit an application to the Commission within a period of 30 days following the date of its formation as per guidelines by the Commission under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• According to the 13 (ii) (e) guidelines for registration of political parties issued by the Commission for condition of registration declares that party must contest an election conducted by the Election Commission within five years of its registration and thereafter should continue to contest. (If the Party does not contest elections continuously for six years, the Party shall be taken off the list of registered parties).

Compliances for RUPPs:

• Section 29 C of RP Act 1951 requires a RUPP to furnish a contribution report as prescribed in Form 24 A under Rule 85 B of Conduct of Election Rules 1961. Such contributions are exempted from the provisions of Income Tax as an incentive to the parties for strengthening the electoral democracy.
• Every Political Party registered, under  section 29 A (6), must contest an election conducted by the Election Commission within 5 years of its registration.
• As per statutory requirements under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, every political party has to communicate any change in its name, head office, office-bearers, address, PAN etc. to the Commission without delay.

Symbols for RUPPs 

•  Only parties that are recognised by the ECI can reserve symbols for their own exclusive use.
• Unrecognised parties can pick from any unreserved or free symbols. The para 10 B (A) 5 of the symbol order gives the privilege of a common symbol which is given based upon an undertaking by the RUPP that the said RUPP will put up at least 5 percent of total candidates with regard to said legislative assembly election of a State.
• Taking common symbol and then not contesting elections is also a matter of grave concern are ruled out by delisted and not entitled  to avail any benefit of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968..

De register Vs Inactive

Deregistration:

• The ECI is not empowered to de-register parties on the grounds of violating the Constitution or breaching the undertaking given to it at the time of registration.
• A party can only be de-registered if its registration was obtained by fraud; if it is declared illegal by the Central Government; or if a party amends its internal Constitution and notifies the ECI that it can no longer abide by the Indian Constitution.

Grounds of declaring inactive: 

• These RUPPs that have failed to comply with the statutory requirements for more than 16 compliance steps and are continuing to default

RUPPs found to be non-existent either after a physical verification carried out by the respective chief electoral officers of concerned states/UTs or based on report of undelivered letters/notices from the postal authority sent to the registered address of the concerned RUPP.