Supreme Court issues notice to EC seeking action against PM Modi & Amit Shah

April 30: Congress parliamentarian and party women wing President Sushmita Dev filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday, wherein she has alleged that the Election Commission (EC) is not taking action on poll code violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court while hearing the matter, issued a notice to the Election Commission to take action against PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

A three Judge Bench of CJI Gogoi And Justices Dipak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna said it will be open to the EC to pass necessary orders in the matter. It will hear the matter again on Thursday. The EC, meanwhile, told the apex court that it would meet later today to consider the complaints filed against the leaders.

The apex court had yesterday agreed to urgently hear a Congress petition about the EC not taking action on continued hate speeches and misuse of the armed forces as political propaganda by Modi and Shah. In one of the most direct attacks against the EC, the 146-page petition said there was one set of rules for Modi and Shah, and another for the rest of the candidates.

The Congress said that 40 representations on violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) were moved in the ECI so far, but no action had been coming from the poll body, which should be devoted to the concept of free and fair elections in a democracy. The delay in action, the Congress said, was a deliberate action itself.