NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday, May 27, the appeal filed by the BJP challenging a Calcutta High Court order directing it to not publish any kind of derogatory advertisements targeting against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party which allegedly violated the model code of conduct (MCC) during the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
According to the Supreme Court's cause list, uploaded on the apex court's website, a two-judge vacation bench of the top court, led by Justice J K Maheshwari and also comprising Justice K V Viswanathan is scheduled to hear the plea of the BJP on May 27, Monday.
The matter is listed as item number 36 in the court of Justice Maheshwari-led bench of the top court. It is expected that the case would come up for hearing likely at around 11.30am.
Earlier on, May 24, mentioning the matter before the two-judge vacation bench of the top court, led by Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal, senior advocate Saurabh Mishra, for the BJP, sought urgent hearing into the case.
The judges of the top court, did not fix any date to hear the case, but said, "We will see it."
Initially, the Calcutta HC's single-judge bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya on May 20, had restrained the BJP from publishing such ads until further orders, after finding the advertisements in question to be in violation of the MCC.
Justice Bhattacharyya, in his order, had also pulled up the Election Commission of India (ECI) for "grossly failing" to address the complaints filed by the TMC against BJP advertisements that targeted the ruling party in West Bengal.
The order had been passed by the single-judge bench, after hearing a petition filed by TMC to restrain the BJP from carrying such ads. The TMC had objected to certain ads published by the BJP in certain newspapers against the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
This single-judge order was challenged by the BJP in the two-judge bench of the HC, which also refused to entertain BJP's prayers on May 22. The two-judge bench of the HC, headed by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, refusing to grant any relief to the BJP, directed that the party should not publish any advertisement violating the MCC during the Lok Sabha election process.
While refusing to interfere with the single-judge bench order, the two-judge bench had observed that all political parties needed to follow healthy electoral practices, as the ultimate victim of misleading electoral campaigns was the voter.
The division bench also observed that a "Laxman Rekha" should be adhered to, and added that there should not be any personal attack on the part of any political party.