The Election Commission of India (ECI) has challenged the 20 October order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which directed that political parties should conduct election campaigns virtually, without physical gatherings.
BJP leader and candidate from Gwalior, Pradyumn Singh Tomar, has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the order, contending that it violates his right to conduct election campaigns through physical gatherings as permitted by the ECI. The High Court has no jurisdiction to substitute the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Central Government and the State Government, under section 10 of the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, the plea said.
The superintendence, direction and control over the conduct of elections is exclusively within the domain of the Election Commission as held in Mohinder Singh Gill vs. The Chief Election Commissioner, (1978) 1 SCC 405, and could not have been substituted by the High Court, the plea added.
The plea also said that the high court cannot modify and substitute the order passed by the Election Commission: Central Government and the State Government, even without there being any challenge to those orders in this writ petition.
The HC exceeded its jurisdiction while passing the interim order while restraining the physical gathering during conduct of election, the plea stated, adding that the high court exceeded its jurisdiction also in directing the candidate of election to deposit the money for double the number of mask and sanitizer than the expected number of people in the gathering.
The court failed to consider that where the Covid-19 protocol was being violated, the state government was taking necessary action and registering FIRs, and any direction beyond the same was completely unnecessary and without jurisdiction, the plea stated.
On 20 October, the Madhya Pradesh HC had restrained political parties from holding physical gatherings unless they had certification from District Magistrates and the EC which said that a virtual election campaign was not possible. The High Court had further directed that the permission of the District Magistrate for physical election campaign shall be effective only if the Election Commission of India approves the same in writing.
The court had passed the orders in a PIL highlighting that various political parties were organising physical campaigning, which was increasing the spread of Covid-19. It was contended in the plea that state authorities were not taking any action against such political parties and their leaders.