The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to pass any order on the petition filed by Congress MP Sushmita Dev, seeking action against the Election Commission’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), and said she could challenge the order in a fresh petition.
Supreme Court refuses to pass any order on the petition filed by Congress MP, Sushmita Dev, seeking direction to the Election Commission to take appropriate action against PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for their alleged hate speeches. pic.twitter.com/xKB8BIXHlH
— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2019
The court told Dev she could challenge the orders in ‘election petition’ in case of objection, adding that the court cannot go into the merits of the orders in this petition.
According to the ADR, “an election petition is a procedure for inquiring into the validity of the election results of Parliamentary or local government elections. In other words, it is a means under law to challenge the election of a candidate in a Parliamentary, Assembly or local election.”
Election petitions are filed in the High Court of the particular state in which the election was conducted and within 45 days from the date of the declaration of results.
“Rightly or wrongly, decision has been made. Challenge it in court,” the bench told Dev while disposing of her plea.
ALSO READ: EC gives clean chit to PM Modi over ‘Bhrashtachari No. 1’ remark on Rajiv Gandhi
Besides, the poll watchdog on Tuesday gave another clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his ‘Bhrashtachari No 1’ remark against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The apex court had on Monday asked the Congress MP to bring on record EC’s orders giving clean chit to Modi and Shah, after she accused the poll panel of inaction on complaints against the two BJP leaders for allegedly violating the poll code with ‘hate speeches’ and using armed forces for ‘political propaganda’.