New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday expressed satisfaction over Election Commission’s action against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BSP supremo Mayawati and others for allegedly making hate speeches during poll campaign.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also refused to consider the plea of Mayawati challenging the EC’s 48-hr ban on the leader and asked her counsel to file a separate appeal against the poll panel’s order.
Taking note of the EC action, the court said it seems the EC has “woken up” and barred various politicians from poll campaigning for varying hours.
The bench also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna made it clear that no further order was required for now.
Following the SC rap for EC, the poll panel on Monday afternoon took action against Adityanath, Mayawati, Azam Khan and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by an NRI Yoga teacher based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), seeking a direction to the EC to take “strict action” against political parties if their spokespersons make remarks based on caste and religion in the media in the run up to general elections.
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But what about the threat from Maneka Gandhi? It stays temporary halt on her speeches. She exposed three weaknesses in the current system she liked to exploit. Booth level votes are not secret including the caste, religious, language and other associated identity factors. A candidate can declare herself as already won with impunity. The winning candidate or party, or even a losing candidate from winning party can threaten to take vengeance from the people. Prime cause is lack of secrecy of booth level votes
Earlier in the paper based voting, all ballot papers from a constituency are mixed up in large drums and it was impossible to trace to the locality where they came from. To ensure similar secrecy the identity of the EVM and its traceability to the individual booth or locality should be removed once it is taken out of the sealed pack and before the counting begins. Only then the voters can vote without the fear of being detected. I request The Print to publicize this idea for implementation in the balance of the phases. I read this idea elsewhere.
It is good to hear from from CJI that EC has woken Up, unfortunately CJI failed to say when the Supreme court and other Courts in our country are going to wake up after a long long Nap. Many comments of Supreme Court Sounds very Shocking. As our CJI has told Supreme Court works for the Maginalised people.Who are these Marginalised people. I felt there are the people who are in high position and are totally Corrupt. Our Courts have totally failed in giving speedy judgement against Corruption..
Unsurprising. The apex court is even more agitated on this issue than the ECI.