The first Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad will on Monday hear three petitions filed by the DMK for pre-certification of posters, audio and video recordings used by it during the Lok Sabha election campaign.
The DMK state Organising Secretary, RS Bharathi filed three writ petitions on April 12 against the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer’s order on April 4, refusing to grant pre-certification for its election material.
In the writ petitions, the DMK has insisted upon the quashing of the rejection orders and issuing of a direction to grant pre-certification for the campaign material.
RS Bharathi in three identical affidavits filed through his counsel S Manuraj, said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had on August 24, 2023 issued guidelines for regulating advertisements by political parties.
As per the guidelines, a State Level Certification Committee (SLCC) headed by an Additional/Joint CEO must pre-certify the advertisements.
The DMK, which had been issuing various advertisements under the Tamil title ‘Indiyavai Kaaka Stalin Azhaikkiren’ (Stalin calls you to protect India), had submitted some of them for pre-certification.
The DMK, in its petition informed the court that the SLCC led by a Joint CEO nixed pre-certification in March this year and the rejection orders were also upheld by a state-level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) led by the CEO.
The DMK leader, in the petition said that rejection orders were passed by citing the provisions which prohibit advertisements which were likely to promote enmity on grounds of religion, race, language, caste or community.
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RS Bharathi said the rejection orders had been passed mechanically without any application of mind and also with an inordinate delay.
The petition also said that the CEO had not given any specific reasons for rejecting the appeals filed by the party against the SLCC’s orders.
