"Gross failure by ECI": Calcutta High Court restrains BJP from publishing derogatory ads about TMC

The Calcutta High Court on Monday restrained the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) from publishing any kind of derogatory advertisements against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) till further orders [All India Trinamool Congress vs Election Commission of India]. .Single-judge Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya also pulled up the Election Commission of India (ECI) for "grossly failing" to address the complaints filed by the TMC against BJPs' ads in which the ruling party in West Bengal was targeted."The ECI has grossly failed to address the complaints of the TMC in due time. This Court is surprised that resolution of the complaints after the conclusion of elections is nothing to the court and as such in due failure on part of the ECI in due time this court is constrained to pass an injunction order," Justice Bhattacharya said in the order. instant petition is not merely to restrain media houses but primarily to restrain the BJP from publishing ads which squarely violate the political rights of the TMC and its functionaries, the Court said.The Court noted that the ads by BJP during the 'silence period' (a day prior to the polls and the polling day) were violative of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and also impinged upon the rights of the TMC and also the citizens' right to free and fair elections."A perusal of the impugned ads published on various dates in this month, clearly evince that those are in violation of the letter and spirit of the MCC, which clearly prohibits all participants in the election process from criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion," the Court said..The Court said that the ads contained personal attacks which were derogatory and hence restrained BJP from publishing such ads."The allegations and publications made against TMC are outright derogatory and definitely intended at insulting the rivals and levelling personal attacks. Hence, the said Ads being directly contradictory to the MCC as well as being violative of the rights of the Petitioner and all citizens of India to free, fair and untainted election process. The BJP, thus ought to be restrained from further publishing such Ads until further orders," the Court ordered. The single-judge made it clear that media outlets should avoid publishing any unverified information against any candidate or a political party, either directly or impliedly, during the elections as envisaged in the guidelines issued by the Press council of India (PCI)..The Court was hearing a petition filed by the TMC seeking injunction against the BJP citing several ads published in certain newspapers against the Mamata Banerjee-led party. Referring to one of the ads which read 'Sanatan Virodhi Trinamool' (Trinamool Opposes Sanatan), the counsel representing the TMC pointed out that the ads are 'diametrically' contrary to the MCC, which prohibits advertising even under the guise of news articles, along the lines of caste, religion, etc.The counsel further pointed out that the TMC has been filing complaints with the ECI after each such publication but there has been no response. The counsel informed the Court that it was only after the TMC filed the instant petition that the ECI issued a show-cause notice to the BJP.The ECI countered the contentions and told the Court that it does not have powers to issue any injunction orders or even to prohibit any political party from contesting, which is found to be violating the MCC. The counsel for further pointed out that the BJP was ordered to respond to the show-cause notice on May 21 (Tuesday).The counsel further informed the Court that with regard to some of the ads in question, the complaint was resolved by forwarding the copy of the said ads to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for its examination.This exercise of the ECI was nothing but passing of the buck, the Court said..In its order, the Court noted that the scope of the instant petition was wider as it hits the rights of the TMC under Article 21 of the Constitution as well as Article 19 in order to practice speech and profess and propagate their political philosophies as well as to have a right to a free and fair election process."Thus, the TMC as any other political party, is entitled to Article 14 of the Constitution of India to seek that the Court ensures free and fair play in the electoral process and to protect the rights of any and every political party in that regard," Justice Bhattacharyya held.