New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Election Commission’s order withdrawing the status of former Chief Minister Kamal Nath as a star campaigner for the by-elections to the 28-seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly. From the bench of Chief Justice SA Bobade, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian, counsel for the Election Commission said that Kamal Nath’s plea has now become futile as the election campaign for these seats has stopped and there is polling on Tuesday.
“We are putting a stop to this,” the bench said. The apex court was hearing senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s plea against the Election Commission’s October 30 order withdrawing his status as a star campaigner. The expenses of star campaigners in elections are borne by the political parties, while the expenses of other campaigners are borne by the candidate. The apex court has issued notice to the Election Commission on Kamal Nath’s petition and sought a reply from him.
The bench said in its order, “Notice should be issued. The order of the Election Commission dated October 30, 2020 will remain pending till the next order. ” In his petition, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, along with seeking revocation of the order of the Election Commission, has requested the court to grant star campaigners or campaigners in view of the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution and elections in a democratic system. Appropriate guidelines should be made regarding the speeches to be given by the BJP during the elections. During the hearing of the case through video conference, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi on behalf of the Election Commission said, “This petition is now useless as the campaign is over, voting is tomorrow.”
On behalf of Kamal Nath, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha said the case was not in vain as the commission had not given any notice to the former chief minister before giving the order on October 30. The bench questioned the advocate of the commission, “How can you decide who is their leader? This is their right, not the Election Commissions. ” Dwivedi said, “We have taken action under the Model Code of Conduct and now the matter is useless.”
The bench said, “It does not matter whether the case is now useless or not. We will decide where you got this right from. ” When Dwivedi said that if the court has to decide on this aspect, the order of the commission should not be withheld. The bench said, “No, we are putting a stop to this.”
Kamal Nath is currently the chairman of the MP Congress Committee and he has said in his petition that the commission has passed the order on the basis of the BJP’s complaint against his October 13 speech without hearing his side. Kamal Nath said in the petition, “The order of the Election Commission is illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and against the principles of natural justice. Therefore, it should be repealed. “
Kamal Nath said that the commission, by order dated October 30, removed his name from the list of star campaigners of the Indian National Congress on the ground that he had repeatedly violated the code of conduct and the recommendations of the commission.
The petition states that the code of conduct has been in force since the day the Election Commission announced by-elections on September 29 in 28 seats in 12 districts of MP. Many legal questions of public importance have been raised in the petition. This includes the question of whether the Election Commission has abolished Kamal Nath’s right to freedom of speech and expression.
In its order, the commission had cited his remarks against MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He had recently used the words ‘mafia’ and ‘adulterator’ against one of his opposition political parties during the election campaign. Just last week, the Election Commission had advised Kamal Nath not to use words like ‘item’ during the campaign. He had made such a statement about Minister of State and BJP candidate Imrati Devi during an election rally.
