Covid-19 surge: Madras high court rejects EC’s request to restrain media from reporting oral observations – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday refused to restrain the media from publishing oral observations made by the court blaming the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Rejecting repeated requests made by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi on behalf of the commission, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy refused to grant any relief.
The issue pertains to the oral observation made by the court on April 26 during hearing of a suo motu PIL initiated by the court to monitor the state’s preparedness in tackling the second wave of the pandemic.
When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, the commission sought the court to direct media houses to confine their reports to observations recorded in orders or judgments and to refrain from reporting on oral observations made during court proceedings.
Publication of court’s oral comments that the ECI was “the institution that is singularly responsible for the situation prevalent today” and that the ECI “should be put up for murder charges” had caused grave prejudice to the commission, the senior advocate said.
He added that police complaints were being filed against commission seeking action for criminal offence.
Refusing to accept the contentions, the bench said, “Courts are there. They can be approached if any frivolous complaints are made.”