Law & Justice
Supreme Court to Review Plea for Standardized Election Manifestos
On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition advocating for a standardized format for political parties' election manifestos. The petitioner-advocate, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, presented an oral mentioning before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. Mr. Upadhyay argued that while Supreme Court and State High Courts utilize structured causelists to inform stakeholders about daily case schedules, election manifestos currently lack a uniform format, being left to the discretion of individual political parties. He contended that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should consider implementing a consistent format for these documents. Chief Justice Kant stated, "We will list this petition." Mr. Upadhyay characterized an election manifesto as a "vision document, a published declaration of the intentions, motives and views of the political party," asserting that it is "statutory and legally enforceable." In a previous petition filed in 2022, Mr. Upadhyay had sought a directive for the Ministry of Law and Justice to ensure political parties' accountability for essential rational manifesto promises. Alternatively, he requested the ECI to use its constitutional authority to establish guidelines that would hold parties liable for their manifesto commitments. In that earlier petition, he also sought a court order directing the ECI to seize election symbols and derecognize or deregister political parties that fail to fulfill essential rational promises made in their manifestos.