'No Reason To Interfere': SC Junks BJP's Plea Against Calcutta HC Order Barring Derogatory Ads Towards TMC
The Calcutta High Court had slammed the Election Commission Of India (ECI) over its gross failure to act on complaints against the BJP by the ruling party in West Bengal.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order restraining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from publishing any kind of derogatory advertisements against the Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC). The high court had also slammed the Election Commission Of India (ECI) over its gross failure to act on complaints against the BJP by the ruling party in West Bengal.
The bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice K.V. Viswanathan said that the advertisements by BJP were prima facie disparaging in nature and said it is not inclined to interfere with Calcutta High Court order.
The top court today refused to entertain the petition and said that BJP may contest notices issued to it by the Calcutta high court by filing a reply to them. The BJP then withdrew the plea. The plea was then dismissed as withdrawn.
The high court restrained BJP and media houses from running those ads which the court said violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and thus the political rights of the TMC and its functionaries.
A single judge bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya while passing the order on barring BJP from running derogatory ads said that the ECI failed to address the complaints against BJPs' ads targeting the TMC.
The high court in its order said that the allegations and publications made against TMC are outright derogatory and definitely intended at insulting the rivals and levelling personal attacks.
The high court also found the said Ads violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and rights of Indian citizens to free, fair and untainted election process. The high court thus restrained BJP from publishing such Ads until further orders.
"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" the high court said.
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