Delisting of registered unrecognised parties
Topic: Political Parties, Party Systems and Anti-defection · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Delisting means the Election Commission of India (ECI) removes a registered unrecognised political party (RUPP) from its list of registered parties. It targets parties that have not contested any election for six years, or that cannot be found at their registered address. Delisting is not deregistration. The ECI has no general power to cancel a party's registration, so it uses delisting to clean up a list full of inactive, "paper" parties.
Example
On 9 August 2025 the ECI delisted 334 RUPPs, which cut their number from 2,854 to 2,520. On 18 September 2025 it delisted 474 more, so 808 were removed in total. A third round then sent notices to 359 RUPPs that had not filed their accounts.
Don't confuse with
- Deregistration of political parties: this cancels the registration itself. Under INC v. Institute of Social Welfare (2002), the ECI can do it on only three grounds: fraud, the party giving up its allegiance under Section 29A, or the government declaring the party unlawful.
Related concepts
- Registration of political parties
- Registered unrecognised political party
- Deregistration of political parties