A day after the Election Commission acted against political leaders Yogi Adityanath, Mayawati, Maneka Gandhi and Azam Khan over inappropriate comments made by them, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it looked like the EC has finally woken up to its powers.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi expressed satisfaction over the actions taken by the EC in the matters of hate speeches and said no further directive requires to be issued at this stage, reports News18.  “It seems you have finally woken up to your powers. You have got your powers back. You don’t look powerless anymore,” observed the CJI. 

Yesterday, the EC barred Mayawati and Gandhi from campaigning for 48 hours, while Yogi Adityanath and Azam Khan received 72-hour bans for violating the Model Code of Conduct. The bans came after the Supreme Court pulled up the EC on Monday for not doing enough to curb hate speech by politicians and questioned the authority it was exercising.

The bench also recorded its satisfaction today on the EC’s response detailing the prohibitory orders issued by it in the last 24 hours against these politicians. The court has kept the PIL pending but at the same time, noted that there is no need to pass further orders in the matter.

Furthermore, the court declined to give a hearing to BSP Chief Mayawati. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave appeared for Mayawati and challenged the order by the EC, especially during  election time. However, the bench asked Dave to file a separate petition if Mayawati seeks to challenge the EC’s order. Mayawati had called the ban “unconstitutional and cruel”.