CHENNAI: The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu knocked the doors of the Madras High Court challenging the orders of the election authorities rejecting the pre-certification for some of its poll advertisements, including videos, ahead of the April 19 polling for Lok Sabha elections.
The party’s organisation secretary RS Bharathi has filed the petitions in this regard.
He said the State Level Certification Committee (SLCC) refused to grant pre-certification of the advertisement materials, including the one on “Stalin calls for protecting India”.
The rejection was done citing sections 2.4 (f), 2.4 (g) and 2.5 (d) of the handbook on media matters for Chief Electoral Officers and District Election Officers, which talk about rejecting advertisements on the grounds of “aspersions against the integrity of the President and Judiciary”, affecting unity, sovereignty and integrity of the nation; and criticism of other parties or their workers on behalf of unverified allegations or distortions.
It is mandatory for political parties to get their advertisements approved by the committee before publication in different media.
Pointing out that similar advertisements have been run by other state and national political parties with some even targeting DMK, Bharathi stated that the appeals filed before the State Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) by his party were not initially acted upon.
However, on April 4, the Chief Electoral Officer- TN passed an order, in a “mechanical manner without applying mind”, to confirm the rejection of pre-certification.
“CEO’s order is not in accordance with the law, shows total non-application of mind and is mala fide, arbitrary and colourable exercise of power,” the petitions filed through advocate S Manuraj stated.
They said the CEO’s order issued without giving an opportunity of hearing him to explain his case ‘results in violation of principles of natural justice’. The petitions sought the court to issue an order to quash the decision of the CEO and direct the concerned authorities to grant pre-certification for the videos under appeal. The petitions are listed for hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad on Monday.
