The Election Commission of India has moved the Supreme Court against the scathing observations made by the Madras High Court for its role in the spread of the pandemic. The national poll body, according to the Bar and Bench website, also sought directions to be issued to media houses to not report on oral observations made during court proceedings.
The case will come up for hearing by the Supreme Court Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah at 10.30 am on Monday.
The Madras High Court on Monday last week had come down heavily on the Election Commission for its questionable role in conducting multi-phase polls in four states and one union territory over the period of 35 days. Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Justice Sanjib Mukherjee, had said that the EC officials should be booked under murder charges. The Madras High Court had said, “Your institution is singularly responsible for the second wave of COVID-19.” It asked, “Were you on another planet when the election rallies were held?”
A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Chandrachud had last week asked the high courts to exercise restrain while making ‘off-the-cuff’ remarks against the government. “Even when we are criticising a judgement of a High Court, we do not say exactly what is in our heart and we exercise a degree of restraint. We would only expect that as freedom has been given to the High Courts to deal with these issues, certain off-the-cuff remarks, which are not necessary may be avoided,” the bench also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat had observed.