Madras HC seeks EC reply on DMK’s plea challenging norms regulating poll ads

Days after the DMK challenged the Election Commission’s rules on pre-certification of poll advertisements by political parties, the Madras High Court has sought the poll body’s response in the matter, Livelaw reported. 

The MK Stalin-led party had filed the petition after the EC refused to grant it pre-certificatification for some posters, videos and audio recordings. The party had also challenged the rejection.   

However, EC’s counsel advocate Niranjan Rajagopal told the court that the plea against the rejection of the pre-certificate can only be heard by the Supreme Court. Subsequently, Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Sathya Narayana Prasad adjourned the matter to April 17. 

As per the EC rules, at present, a state-level certification committee led by the chief electoral officer takes the call on the pre-certification applications filed by political parties headquartered in the state.  

In its plea, the DMK submitted that the party’s pre-certificate application was rejected on the grounds that the ads were not in conformity with the EC’s code and were “likely to promote enmity, and contain aspersion against the integrity of the president and judiciary, or contain criticism of other parties or their workers”.

The DMK argued that the order was “vague, arbitrary, and prejudicial” and that other parties were running similar ads. It noted that earlier its appeal against the order was rejected by the state’s media certification and monitoring committee “without giving any specific reasons”.