All Congress complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah will have to be resolved by Monday, the Supreme Court has told the Election Commission. The Congress had appealed to the top court last week, accusing the Commission of delaying its decision in cases involving the Prime Minister and the BJP chief, while handing out prompt penalties to opposition leaders.
Congress's Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that 11 complaints have been made against the Prime Minister and Amit Shah, but till today, the Commission has taken decision on only two.
In both cases, the Commission has given a clean chit to the Prime Minister. Mr Singhvi argued that even in these cases, the Congress did not get a reasoned order.
The Commission told the court that it hopes to take a decision on the rest of the cases by Wednesday. A report, it said, could be submitted to the court on Thursday. But the bench, led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, refused to give it extra time.
The Commission contended that it needs more time as it has to get the entire transcript from the ground - and has to conduct the elections at the same time, but the court did not budge.
The top court has repeatedly prodded the Commission through this election to take action on the alleged Model Code violations.
At a hearing last month, upset by a series of violations of the Model Code of Conduct, the court had pulled up the Commission. When the Commission claimed it was "toothless" and "powerless" to act against hate speeches, the court had questioned whether it was even aware of its powers.
Since then, the Commission has handed temporary bans to a string of leaders and ministers caught violating the Model Code. It, however, gave a clean chit to PM Modi for two of his speeches, where the Congress alleged Model Code violation.
In an appeal to the top court, Congress's Sushmita Dev said PM Modi and Mr Shah used "hate speech" at rallies to polarise voters, and referred to the operations by the armed forces in their "political propaganda" despite the poll body's ban.
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