The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday moved the Supreme Court over the Madras High Court’s observation that the poll body is singularly responsible for the COVID-19 situation in India and that it should probably be put on murder charges for failing to ensure compliance of COVID-19 protocol during election rallies. In its petition, the EC said the Madras HC’s comment was “uncalled for, blatantly disparaging and derogatory”. The matter has been listed before a bench of the Apex Court headed by Justice DY Chandrachud for a hearing on Monday.
The EC in its petition said that the Madras High Court being an independent constitutional authority made "serious allegations of murder on another independent constitutional authority without any basis, which has ultimately dented both the institutions." The EC said that that dangerous trend has started with the "uncalled for, blatantly disparaging and derogatory remarks", as a criminal complaint was filed against a Deputy Election Commissioner.
Maintaining that the remarks by the High Court caused serious damage to its reputation, built over the years, the poll body claimed people from places, where no elections were held in the recent past, pinned the blame of Covid-19 infection on the EC. The plea also highlighted how the Madras High Court Friday refused to entertain its petition in this regard.
The poll body has also prayed that that directions be issued to media houses to confine their reports to observations recorded in orders or judgments and to refrain from reporting on oral observations made during court proceedings.
The development comes a day after the Supreme Court on April 30 advised High Courts to avoid unnecessary 'off-the-cuff remarks' during hearings, a call that came against the backdrop of stinging observations made by some of them against the Centre and state governments over their handling of the escalating COVID-19 crisis.
On Friday, the Madras High Court had refused to entertain a petition by the Election Commission seeking to restrain the media from publishing the court’s oral observations blaming the poll body for the rise in Covid-19 cases..
However, the Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthi Kumar Ramamurth said that the "post mortem" on such aspects can wait and that the focus, for now, would be on the measures that can be put in place for COVID-19 management in the State.
Coming down heavily on the Election Commission for “not stopping political parties” from violating Covid protocols during their campaign rallies for Assembly polls in four states and an Union Territory over the last month, the Madras HC had said that murder charges should probably be imposed on the panel for being “the only institution responsible for the situation that we are in today”.