New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear Tuesday a Congress MP’s plea seeking direction to the Election Commission to decide without any “demur” the complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on their alleged hate speeches and using armed forces for “political propaganda”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submissions of senior advocate A.M. Singhvi that the plea of Sushmita Dev, Congress Lok Sabha MP from Silchar in Assam and President of ‘All India Mahila Congress’, be accorded an urgent hearing as EC has not taken any decision on complaints of model code of conduct (MCC) violations against Modi and Shah.
Dev alleged that “inaction” by EC on complaints against top BJP leaders was “a sign of invidious discrimination” and was “arbitrary, capricious and impermissible” as it was destructive of the integrity of electoral process.
Singhvi, along with lawyer Sunil Fernandes, alleged that BJP leaders have been violating MCC during last four weeks and the EC has not taken any decisions on as many as 40 complaints of Congress party. To this, the bench said it will hear the plea on Tuesday.
The bench took note of the submission of Singhvi and asked him as to why he was reluctant in naming the BJP leaders.
“Why don't you (Singhvi) mention clearly the names,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
Dev said she has been constrained to move to the apex court to seek direction to the EC “to expeditiously take action on multiple complaints pending before the ECI” against Modi.
