Top

Supreme Court can lay down law when rights of people are affected

C. Mallesh Rao opined that the top court of the country should come to the rescue of citizens by invoking its inherent power.

Hyderabad: Legal experts say that the Supreme Court has inherent powers to look into grey areas whenever it notices - in the absence of specific provisions in the statute - that the rights of the people have been affected, by using its suo moto power under the Constitution and the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes.

C. Mallesh Rao, a senior criminal lawyer, explains that Article 32 and 226 of the Constitution and Section 482 of the CrPC and Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code empower the Supreme Court to lay down the law whenever personal life and liberty of the people is under threat.

Citing the Delhi High Court’s action in taking suo moto cognizance of the publication of photographs and the name of the eight-year-old child who was gang-raped and murdered in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, he pointed out that why the Supreme Court is not looking into the rampant misuse of social media by political parties and some disgruntled elements of society.

He said that prohibiting campaigning 48 hours prior to polling was introduced to enable the voters to enjoy their right of casting their vote in free and fair manner without being influenced.

So, allowing campaigning on social media amounts to infringement of the right of the voter to cast his vote in a free and fair manner.

Since as of now there is no proper provision to regulate the social media in the Representation of Peoples Act or in any other Act in force in the country, he opined that the top court of the country should come to the rescue of citizens by invoking its inherent power.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
Next Story