CHENNAI: The first bench of Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad on Thursday adjourned the hearing of petitions filed by DMK regarding rejection of pre-certification of poll advertisements to next week.
The adjournment was made after ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan sought time to produce a copy of the final order of the Supreme Court in the 2004 case of the Union of India Vs Gemini TV and others on telecast of poll advertisements in electronic media.
The counsel had submitted that based on the orders of the Supreme Court in this case, the ECI devised clause 3.8 of the rules governing pre-certification of the poll advertisements that any appeal against the order of the chief electoral officer could only be filed before the Supreme Court.
Senior counsel R Shanmugasundaram had questioned the legality of such a clause which deprived the high court of writ jurisdiction provided under Article 226 of the Constitution. The court on Thursday said the ECI cannot take away powers of the High Court and sought for the copy of the final order.
