Supreme Court agrees to hear petition on uniform election manifesto format

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition asking for a uniform format for election manifestos across all political parties, a move that could standardise how parties present their promises and positions to voters.

Petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay made an oral mention before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who agreed to list the matter for hearing. "We will list this petition," Chief Justice Kant said.

Push for uniformity in manifesto presentation

During the mentioning, Upadhyay drew a parallel with the highly structured formats used by the judiciary, pointing out that the Supreme Court and State High Courts maintain detailed causelists to inform advocates, litigating parties and court officials about daily case scheduling. In contrast, the format of election manifestos remains at the discretion of individual political parties, he told the court.

The petitioner-advocate has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider implementing a uniform format for manifestos. He has argued in his petition that an election manifesto constitutes a "vision document, a published declaration of the intentions, motives and views of the political party". "Hence, it is statutory and legally enforceable," Upadhyay has submitted.

Earlier petition sought accountability mechanism

Upadhyay had filed an earlier petition in 2022 seeking a direction to the Ministry of Law and Justice to establish mechanisms making political parties accountable for essential rational manifesto promises. In the alternative, that petition sought directions to the ECI to use its plenary constitutional power to frame guidelines fixing liability on parties for their manifesto commitments.

The 2022 petition had also requested the court to direct the Election Commission to seize the election symbol and derecognise or deregister political parties that fail to fulfil their essential rational promises made in election manifestos.

Source: The Hindu