Reconsider stand on application of party with similar abbreviation: Court tells SEC

Hyderabad: Dealing with an issue of duplication of the abbreviation ‘‘AIMIM’, Justice Challa Kodandaram of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the Telangana State Election Commission to reconsider its stand on an application filed by the All India Majlis-e-Inquilab-e-Millat Party as it has offered to abbreviate the party name as AIMIM(Inquilab).

The objection is that the abbreviation sounds similar to that of the All India Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen.

The court was dealing with a petition filed by M.A. Quddus Ghori, general secretary of the All India Majlis-e-Inquilab-e-Millat Party, who challenged the State Election Commission’s refusal to grant recognition on the ground that its abbreviation resembles that of the All India Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen.

The petitioner had proposed to register the name as ‘All India Majlis-Itehadul-Millat’. Following the objection, the party submitted five names of which the SEC gave approval to ‘All India Majlis-e-Inquilab-e-Millat’. But, when it came to the abbrieviation, the issue was raised again.

Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, general secretary, All India Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen, raised his objection stating that the new party was duplicating its abbreviation. This is not a case of resemblance but one of outright duplication, he said and pointed out that the abbreviation sounded the same, had the same letters in the same order — AIMIM.

Considering this, the SEC, refused to register the new party. Senior counsel L. Ravichander, appearing for the petitioner, said that political parties were given such advantage which inexplicably was rejected for the petitioner. He submitted that the SEC had rejected the application even after an undertaking by the petitioner that it would use the abbreviation AIMIM(Inquilab).

Mayur Mundra, counsel for the petitioner, said that the party had suffered a unique paradox. He submitted instances where other political parties had been granted registration with similar-sounding names with the necessary distinctions.

Keeping in view the aspects mentioned by Counsels of the petitioner and to avoid the allegation of discrimination, Justice Kodandaram directed the SEC to decide the matter afresh by considering the fact that the petitioner had come forward to add ‘Inquilab’ in addition to AIMIM.