The Madras High Court on Wednesday held that there was no legal bar for political parties to publish advertisements in the print media on the day of election and hence the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Bharatiya Janata Party councillors cannot be disqualified.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy dismissed a writ petition filed by advocate M.L. Ravi of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi with costs of ₹10,000 to be deposited with Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority within 15 days.
The petitioner had urged the court to disqualify the councillors belonging to the DMK and BJP because both the parties had issued full page advertisements in newspapers on February 19 though the campaign for the urban local bodies polls ought to have concluded on February 17.
Disagreeing with him, the judges said, the High Court could not entertain a writ petition to disqualify the councillors who had already been declared elected. Since the petitioner was also a candidate, he could only file an election petition challenging the victory of other candidates.
They went on to state that the writ petition lacked merit too since the petitioner had relied upon Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951 which was applicable only to the Parliamentary and Assembly elections and not urban local bodies polls.
Under Section 56C of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act of 1920, there was a prohibition only for conducting public meetings either on the day of polling or within 24 hours before the day of polling and it provides for imposition of fine of ₹250 on the violators, they pointed out.
Though the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) had issued a directive prohibiting campaigning after 6 p.m. on February 17, that directive too had banned campaign only through television, radio, digital and social media. Print media was not mentioned in it.
“Even under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, a prohibition of similar nature exists but not on print media,” the Division Bench said and admonished the petitioner for wasting the time of the court by filing such cases without any merit.
