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Cuttack: The Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM) on Wednesday received a major jolt after Orissa High Court set aside its petition praying to quash the State Election Commission’s order that prohibited the party to contest Bhubaneswar Municiapal Corporation polls with Kite symbol.
While rejecting the plea, a division bench of Chief justice A K Goel and Justice A K Ratha ruled that the order of the commission can not considered illegal.
The OJM had filed a writ petition stating that it was a registered unrecognised party and appealed to the court to quash the SEC order dated December 17, 2013 where it had rejected the appeal for allotting ‘Kite’ symbol to them.
The petitioner appraised the court that the SEC does not have any power to allot party symbols and only the Election Commission of India is authorised to do so. The party had prayed to the High Court to direct the SEC to accord official status to its election symbol kite.
The SEC on December 17 had rejected OJM’s plea to allow it to use kite symbol given by ECI for BMC elections citing that the party application does not satisfy the guidelines under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment), Order, 1968.