Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued notice to Election Commission of India after hearing Congress MP Sushmita Dev's petition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for allegedly violating Model Code of Conduct. The apex court will now hear this case on Friday.
A 2-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi heard the matter on Tuesday and asked the petitioner to wait for the decision of EC in this case.
The SC bench also took note of the submissions made by Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who filed the plea on behalf of Sushmita Dev.
In her plea, Dev had alleged that despite several complaints, the poll panel did not take any action on the alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct by Modi and Shah during their rallies in the run-up to Lok Sabha poll.
Dev also claimed that EC's "inaction" on complaints against PM Modi and Shah was "a sign of invidious discrimination" and was "arbitrary, capricious and impermissible" as it was not doing any favour to the integrity of electoral process.
“It is in public domain that they have indulged in hate speeches, repeatedly used the armed forces for political propaganda, despite a clear prohibition on the same by the Respondent/ECI. Furthermore, the Prime Minister in blatant violation of the MCC held a rally on the day of polling in Gujarat on April 23rd, 2019 i.e. date of voting in the third phase of the election,” Sushmita Dev said in her plea.
Meanwhile, the EC is expected to take a decision on complaints of model code violations by PM Modi, Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday.
Talking to PTI, Deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said the 'full commission' would meet Tuesday and take decisions on the complaints. "The secretariat has processed everything and place the details before the Commission," he said.
It is to be noted that the poll panel meets every Tuesday and Thursday to discuss important issues.
