Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Election Commission on Congress Member of Parliament Sushmita Dev’s petition accusing the poll panel of not deciding her party’s complaints of election code violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, however, said the Election Commission was free to pass appropriate orders on the complaints in question.
The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
The Election Commission met on Tuesday to take up complaints against Modi, Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
While Modi and Shah have been accused of making “hate speeches” and “using” the armed forces for “political propaganda” during their Lok Sabha poll campaigns, the complaints against Gandhi relate to his use of the “chowkidar chor hai” slogan.
The EC had on Monday said that it would hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the complaints.
“Regarding the alleged complaints of violation of model code of conduct against senior leaders of two political parties, the Commission has already taken all the inputs and details and has scheduled a meeting on Tuesday for taking a decision on each of the issues,” Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar had told the media.
“At present there are three leaders against whom there are complaints—Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Amit Shah. The matters are under consideration with the Commission,” he added.
Kumar also said that the “full Commission” will meet on Tuesday to decide on the complaints. “The secretariat has processed everything and placed the details before the Commission,” he said.
The Commission meets every Tuesday and Thursday to discuss important issues.
Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena on Monday said there was a need to take a comprehensive view of all the complaints and added that each alleged violation would have to be taken up separately and decisions will be taken accordingly.
There have been several complaints of alleged poll code violations against the three leaders.
