Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has approached the Madras High Court challenging orders passed by a committee headed by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), on April 4, refusing to grant pre-certification for some of the posters, videos and audio recordings planned to be used by the party during the ongoing campaign for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled on April 19.
The three writ petitions filed by the party, challenging the rejection orders, have been listed for admission before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad on Monday. The party has insisted upon quashing the rejection orders and consequently issuing a direction to grant pre-certification for the campaign materials.
In three identical affidavits, filed through his counsel S. Manuraj, the party’s organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi said, the Election Commission of India had on August 24, 2023 issued guidelines for regulating the 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.
