The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to explain the rationale behind its insistence that denial of pre-certification for election advertisements can be challenged only before the Supreme Court and not any other court.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad granted time till Wednesday for the ECI counsel to take instructions after senior counsel R. Shunmugasundaram for DMK argued that the ECI had no right to take away the writ jurisdiction of the High Courts.
Though ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan said it was the Supreme Court which had imposed such a restriction on April 13, 2004, the senior counsel pointed out that the restriction imposed by the apex court had expired on May 10, 2004 itself and not extended beyond that.
