Plea seeking FIR against PM for hate speech; Delhi HC says ‘Cannot micromanage EC’

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court ruled on Friday that it was not allowed to micromanage the Election Commission's operations because it is a constitutional organisation, Bar and Bench reported.

During a hearing on a petition to file a first information report against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for spreading hate speech during the Lok Sabha campaign trail, Justice Sachin Datta made the observation.

“Who is to decide that there has been violation of the Model Code of Conduct?” Datta asked. “ECI [Election Commission] is a constitutional body, we cannot micromanage it.”

All political parties, candidates, and governments are required to abide by the Model Code of Conduct, which is a set of guidelines published by the Election Commission in the lead-up to an election. Speech is governed by the code.

The petitioners' lawyer, Nizam Pasha, informed the court that the Election Commission's decisions cannot be made based on who is indulging in hate speech. “The response has to be uniform [for everyone], he said.

In response, Election Commission representative lawyer Suruchi Suri stated that following objections regarding the prime minister's remarks, the Election Commission had sent a notice to the ruling party. After the Bharatiya Janata Party responds, which is likely to happen by May 15, Suri stated that legal action will be pursued. The matter was scheduled for a second hearing on May 13 by the court.

Shaheen Abdulla, Amitabha Pande, and Deb Mukharji have filed a petition objecting to Modi's April 21 speech in Banswara, Rajasthan, where he first made the dog-whistle reference to Muslims in claiming that the Congress intends to divide citizens' private wealth among "infiltrators" and "those who have more children" if voted to power.

Modi was allegedly alluding to statements made by Manmohan Singh, the leader of the Congress, during a speech to the National Development Council on December 9, 2006. The advancement of women, children, minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes was stated as the nation's top priority by then-prime minister Singh.

The prime minister's speech in the Sagar area of Madhya Pradesh on April 24 was also included in the appeal. Modi has said that the Karnataka Congress had created reservations based on religion by using illegal methods, Scroll.in reported.

“Through a single notification, it included all Muslim communities in the OBC [Other Backward Classes] quota,” he said. “The Congress snatched away a big part of OBC reservations and gave it on the basis of religion.”

Nonetheless, Karnataka is one of the nation's 14 states and Union territories where Muslim people are listed as Other Backward Classes due to their relative social and economic backwardness.

The petitioners claim that despite numerous citizens' complaints, the Election Commission has done little to address the issue. Since he originally stated these, other BJP officials have frequently repeated Modi's statements.

“This inaction on the part of the Respondent [Election Commission] is manifestly arbitrary, malafide, impermissible and constitutes a violation of its constitutional duty,” the petition said, adding that the poll panel’s behaviour was “rendering the MCC [Model Code of Conduct] futile”.

“The omissions and commissions by [Election Commission] are not only in complete and direct violation of Articles 14, 21 and 324 of the Constitution of India but are also impeding free, fair and unbiased General Elections,” the petition said.

Equal protection under the law is guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution, while Article 21 declares that no one may be deprived of their personal liberty other than in accordance with legally established procedures. The poll regulator is given total authority over elections in India by virtue of Article 324.

The petition further claimed that while several other politicians, including K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party, and Dilip Ghosh of the BJP, had received letters for alleged poll code violations, no action had been taken against Modi. Action against all BJP leaders who have made "communal" comments, including Nadda and Union minister Anurag Thakur, was requested in the appeal.