Supreme Court junks plea seeking poll campaign rights for undertrial politicians in jail

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to allow politicians who are in jail as undertrial prisoners to campaign for elections via video conference [Amarjeet Gupta v Election Commission of India & Ors]..Interestingly, the Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan opined that the question of law raised in the petition was important and interesting and could be examined in another, more appropriate case.Justice Kant added that the present plea filed by a law student appeared to have been triggered only by the arrest of one particular politician. "This petition has been filed with malafide intent. It is concentrated on one politician who is every day before this court with a battery of the best lawyers," Justice Kant remarked.The Court was alluding to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, who is presently in jail in connection with the Delhi excise policy case..The plea by one Amarjeet Gupta was first filed before the Delhi High Court.In his plea, Gupta had submitted that the Union of India should provide information about the arrest of a political party leader or a candidate promptly to the Election Commission of India (ECI) when the model code of conduct (MCC) is in force.Among other submissions, Gupta had also questioned the timing of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest since it took place shortly before the Lok Sabha elections were due to start..On May 1, Delhi High Court dismissed Gupta's public interest litigation (PIL) petition, while terming the plea as one filed for publicity.Gupta then challenged the May 1 order before the Supreme Court. He also urged the top court to expunge the Delhi High Court's adverse remarks against him.Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh appeared for Gupta before the apex court on July 22 and argued that the larger question of law raised in the plea was important. The plea was not just about Kejriwal, Singh asserted.However, the Court was not convinced by the submission and proceeded to dismiss the plea.The plea before the top court was filed through advocate Manoj K Srivastava and drawn by advocate Md. Imran Ahmad.