Delhi High Court Closes PIL Against AAP's 'Spam' Calls On Freebies Amid Assembly Polls, Asks ECI To Ensure No Use Of Vilifying Material

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that political parties and their candidates do not use any vilifying material during elections which vitiates the atmosphere. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela disposed of a PIL alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was making “spam calls” on a daily basis to the public to publicise “freebies” and to disseminate hatred, biases and vilifying material in the wake of upcoming Assembly polls. The Court closed the PIL moved by three young lawyers, noting that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had taken cognizance of their complaint. Noting that the ECI has asked the Chief Election Officer to enquire into the matter, the Court said that appropriate action be taken by the Commission or any other authority as per law.Appearing in person, one of the petitioners - Drone Diwan, submitted that the voice calls were creating a message that if votes are not given to a particular party, it will be bad and unpleasant for the voters as freebies will be withdrawn. Advocate Siddhant Kumar appearing for ECI submitted that cognizance has been taken of the petitioners' complaint received on January 25 and that the Chief Election Officer has been directed to enquire into the matter. He said that other prayers for the issuance of guidelines are covered by a Supreme Court ruling of 2004 where media certification and monitoring committees had been set up throughout India. He also told the Court that guidelines have been issued by ECI mandating that political advertisements, including voice calls, are certified. Kumar said that as and when the report of the Chief Election Officer is received, appropriate action will be taken. Advocate Suruchi Suri appeared for the Chief Election Officer. She gave a handbook to the Court published by ECI containing various steps to be taken into account while issuing certificates for political advertisements etc.ECI must conduct free and fair electionsDisposing of the plea, the Bench said that so far as the conduct of elections in the Legislative Assembly is concerned, it is the primary duty cast upon the ECI under Article 324 of the Constitution of India to ensure free and fair elections while supervising the conduct of elections. “It thus becomes duty of the ECI to take pro active steps to check circulation of such messages which has potential of vilifying the atmosphere,” the Court said. The Court said that the State Election Officer, Chief Election Officer and the District Election Officer are fully empowered and duty-bound to check that such messages and advertising material are being circulated by political parties and their candidates which have the tendency of vilifying atmosphere in elections. “We thus direct that based on the enquiry report to be submitted by the Chief Election Officer, appropriate action which will be warranted under law be taken by ECI or any other authority under law to do so,” the Court said. On the prayer to postpone the elections, the Court said that such prayer could not be granted in the midst of the polls as no such ground was available in the PIL. “We thus dispose of the PIL taking note of the action taken by the ECI on the complaint of the petitioners as also the provision contained in the handbook issued by ECI with further hope and trust that appropriate action under law shall be taken on the complaint but also for ensuring that political parties and their candidates are checked not to use any vilifying material during election campaigns,” the Court said.ECI must ensure no vilifying material is used by participantsThe plea sought guidelines to identify vilified and malicious material for political advertisement during elections. It also sought to restrain the AAP from disseminating “vilifying material” in the public domain which is allegedly creating a negative influence on voters. A direction was also sought on the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone the elections, only to the extent the budget allows, for conducting free and fair elections.The plea also sought the creation of specific laws under the Information Technology Act to punish spam callers. “The spam calls are being motivated with the intent to disseminate hatred, biasness, malicious and vilifying material in the public domain. The dissemination of such vilified material has prejudiced not only the rights of the political parties but has also prejudiced the right of the public barring them to choose their representative in the most democratic form,” the plea said. It added that the material which was being disseminated by AAP had created an opinion against other political parties which was enough to tarnish their image and to create public bias. “The disseminators had created hatred against a particular organisation which could in all probability prejudice their possibilities and probabilities to get elected as a majority party in...

Delhi High Court Closes PIL Against AAP's 'Spam' Calls On Freebies Amid Assembly Polls, Asks ECI To Ensure No Use Of Vilifying Material

Nupur Thapliyal

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