Madras HC junks EC request to gag media from reporting observations
CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday declined to entertain a plea by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restrain the media from reporting oral observations made by judges during court proceedings over allowing political rallies to go on unrestricted even as a pandemic is ravaging the country.
On Monday, while hearing the suo motu case on the preparedness for Covid-19 second wave in
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the high court remarked that the ECI was singularly responsible for the second wave of infections for not taking action against political rallies that flouted Covid-19 norms, and added that its officials should “probably be booked for murder”.
Appearing for ECI on Friday, Rakesh Dwivedi said the poll body was aggrieved by wide media coverage of the remarks made by the bench.
The ECI plea contended that ”murder” statement caused prejudice to ECI and based on this, police complaints were being filed against the election body.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy told ECI that the “courts concerned would take care of such frivolous complaints being filed against the ECI...” The matter has been adjourned to May 5.
CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday declined to entertain a plea by the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) to restrain the media from reporting oral observations made by judges during court proceedings.
The poll body was aggrieved by wide coverage of observations made by a bench of chief justice Sanjib Banerjee and justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Monday while hearing the suo motu (on its own) case on the preparedness for Covid-19 second wave in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The judges had remarked that ECI was singularly responsible for the second wave because it didn’t take action against political rallies that violated Covid-19 norms and added that its officials should probably be booked for murder.
Reporting of these comments had caused great damage and tarnished ECI’s image, its counsel Rakesh Dwivedi contended, adding that people filed FIRs against ECI based on the statement.
“The courts concerned would take care of such frivolous complaints being filed against the ECI... lets not play a blame game,” the chief justice said, refusing to restrain the media.
Dwivedi also apprised the court of measures taken to ensure that Covid-19 norms are followed on May 2, when results of elections to four states and a Union Territory will be announced. He raised the issue of the coverage of the court’s oral remarks, complaining that the press highlighted only the observations and not the written order that did not contain any such statement against the EC.
Dwivedi asked the court to direct media houses to confine their reports to observations recorded in orders and to refrain from reporting on oral observations made during court proceedings. The bench, however, did not issue any such order even though it wrapped up the proceedings in the case filed by Tamil Nadu transport minister MR Vijayabhaskar for a safe and fair counting on May 2 since his constituency Karur has 77 candidates.
“Two aspects cannot be missed. First, is the Union’s endeavour to indicate that surge in numbers may be unexpected ...second aspect is the EC’s concern about sensationalism. The post-mortem on either count may have to wait particularly in light of immediate measures that may be put in place,” the court said in its order.
The HC will continue hearing the case relating to preparedness to deal with surge in Covid-19 cases. It has suggested that the state conduct extensive drives for vaccinations, put up information so that people don’t panic. Parties, media were directed to follow pandemic norms and not burst crackers as part of victory celebrations.
The matter has been adjourned to May 5.
EC WAS AGGRIEVED BY A COVERAGE OF OBSERVATIONS DURING THE HEARING OF A SUO MOTU CASE ON THE PREPAREDNESS FOR THE SECOND WAVE OF COVID-19