Calcutta HC refuses to stay order restraining BJP from publishing derogatory ads about Trinamool
Political parties need to follow healthy electoral practices as the voter ultimately becomes the victim of a misleading poll campaign, the court said.
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to stay an interim order of the court that restrained the Bharatiya Janata Party from publishing derogatory advertisements about the Trinamool Congress amid the Lok Sabha elections, Bar and Bench reported.
On Monday, a single bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya noted that the BJP’s advertisements targeting the Trinamool Congress had been published within the 48-hour silence period that the Model Code of Conduct imposes in a region before it goes to the polls. Parties are not allowed to campaign or publish any advertisements in this time period.
The code is a set of guidelines issued by the poll panel that political parties and governments have to follow during an election.
Bhattacharyya was hearing a petition filed by the Trinamool Congress seeking an injunction against the BJP for several advertisements it had published in newspapers targeting West Bengal’s ruling party.
One of the advertisements, according to the Trinamool Congress, labelled it as “Sanatan Virodhi Trinamool [anti-Sanatan Trinamool]”. Sanatana Dharma is a term used by some people as a synonym for Hinduism.
The Trinamool Congress told the court that the BJP’s advertisements had violated the Model Code of Conduct, which prohibits any political advertising on the lines of caste and religion, even under the guise of news articles.
Bhattacharyya had then restrained the Hindutva party from publishing the advertisements.
A day later, the BJP filed an appeal against the High Court’s judgement before a division bench, stating that the single-judge bench did not hear it before passing the order.
“The TMC [Trinamool Congress] did not serve a notice to my client so we did not appear and the judge could not hear us before passing orders and making observations,” said the counsel representing the BJP.
On Wednesday, a division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya refused to interfere with the single judge bench’s interim order.
The court told the counsel for the BJP to return to the single-judge bench and seek a review of the order, Live Law reported. It also added that it was not inclined to interfere as it was an interim order.
The division bench noted that all political parties had to follow healthy electoral practices as the voter ultimately becomes the victim of a misleading poll campaign because they “may either get led or misled”.
The court said: “We are of the view that we can test the correctness of an order on the submissions made before the single-judge as to whether those submissions were dealt with and whether the conclusion arrived was just and proper, fair and reasonable”.
However, the division bench said that it “cannot test an order on submissions which were never made before the single-judge”.
On Monday, the single-judge bench had also reprimanded the Election Commission for its inaction and noted that the BJP’s advertisements violated guidelines of the Press Council of India.
