The supreme court on Wednesday upheld the election commission criteria for recognition of state political parties. In a majority decision, two judges of the three-member bench said the parameters decided by the commission had kept the balance in mind, while one judge held that the criteria were not valid.

Smaller political parties like the DMDK from Tamil Nadu have challenged the EC criteria for recognising political parties at the state level. A party has to get 6 percent of polled votes plus two MLA seats or 8 percent of polled votes to get recognition by the commission.

Smaller political parties contested the criteria and wanted the commission to restrict itself to only 6 percent votes minus the two MLA seats, which was the condition till 2000. The commission argued that to get recognition parties should have presence in the assembly.