{"id":46557,"date":"2025-06-30T20:38:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=46557"},"modified":"2025-07-02T18:07:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:37:53","slug":"de-listing-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-06-2025\/de-listing-political-parties","title":{"rendered":"De-listing of Political Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated steps to <strong>de-list 345<\/strong> Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) that have not contested elections in the last six years and whose offices could not be physically located.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Political Party Registration in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Constitutional and Legal Basis:<\/strong><strong>Article 19(1)(c)<\/strong> of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to form associations, which includes the formation of political parties.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Representation of the<strong> People Act, 1951<\/strong>, under <strong>Section 29A<\/strong>, empowers the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/election-commission-of-india\/\"><strong>Election Commission of India (ECI)<\/strong><\/a> to register political parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Procedure for Registration:<\/strong> A political party seeking registration must:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Submit its <strong>constitution\/memorandum<\/strong> within <strong>30 days<\/strong> of formation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pledge allegiance to the Constitution<\/strong> of India and to the principles of socialism, secularism, democracy, sovereignty, unity, and integrity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ensure internal democracy<\/strong>, including regular elections for office bearers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Upon registration, such parties are classified as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-06-2022\/registered-unrecognised-political-parties-rupps\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-06-2022\/registered-unrecognised-political-parties-rupps\">Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs)<\/a><\/strong> unless they fulfill the criteria for recognition as national or state parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Benefits Enjoyed by RUPPs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tax exemption for donations received under <strong>Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, 1961,&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A common symbol for contesting general elections to the Lok Sabha\/State Assemblies, and&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Right to nominate up to<strong> 20 star campaigners.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Issues with the Existing Framework<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Explosive Growth of RUPPs: <\/strong>As of May 2025, India had over <strong>2,800 RUPPs<\/strong>, but only 750 contested the 2024 General Elections.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Many of these have become <strong>&#8220;letter pad parties&#8221;<\/strong> \u2014 existing only on paper, with no real political activity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of ECI Powers to Deregister:<\/strong> The Supreme Court in Indian <strong>National Congress versus Institute of Social Welfare &amp; Ors, 2002<\/strong> ruled that the ECI can delist a party but cannot deregister a party except under extraordinary circumstances like:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Registration obtained by fraud,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Loss of allegiance to the Constitution,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Declaration of the party as unlawful by the Central Government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tax Exemption Misuse: <\/strong>Inactive RUPPs <strong>misusing the Income Tax Act<\/strong> provisions to launder money or evade taxes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Many parties fail to furnish donor or expenditure details, yet continue to receive tax benefits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of Inner-party Democracy:<\/strong> Most parties do not conduct regular internal elections or adhere to democratic norms, defeating the spirit of participatory governance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recommendations for Reform<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Law Commission 170th Report (1999) &amp; 255th Report (2015): <\/strong>It recommended to;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Introduce statutory criteria for de-registration,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Allow de-registration for failure to contest elections for 10 consecutive years,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mandate internal democracy within parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The ECI in its memorandum for electoral reforms (2016)<\/strong> had also suggested amendment to <strong>RP Act, 1951 to;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide ECI explicit power to deregister parties,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Penalise non-compliance with transparency norms,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deny tax benefits and common symbols to defaulting RUPPs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concluding Remarks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s vibrant democracy permits free formation of political parties, but the unchecked rise of inactive RUPPs weakens electoral integrity.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The ECI\u2019s de-listing drive is timely, yet without statutory powers for deregistration and stronger transparency norms, its impact remains limited.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Comprehensive legal reforms, backed by political will, are crucial to ensure a credible and accountable multi-party system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/why-is-the-eci-de-listing-political-parties-explained\/article69752812.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Election Commission of India (ECI) has initiated steps to de-list 345 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) that have not contested elections in the last six years and whose offices could not be physically located.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Political Party Registration in India<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Constitutional and Legal Basis:Article 19(1)(c) of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to form associations, which includes the formation of political parties.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Representation of the People Act, 1951, under Section 29A, empowers the Election Commission of India (ECI) to register political parties.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-06-2025\/de-listing-political-parties\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46687,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46557\/revisions\/46687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}