Election Commission fails in bid to gag media over Madras high court flak – Times of India

CHENNAI: Four days after Madras high court lambasted the Election Commission for failure to enforce Covid protocol during poll campaigns and said the latter should face “murder charges”, the EC on Friday failed in its bid to gag the media from reporting oral observations made by judges with the HC rejecting its plea.
“A postmortem into such concern has to wait till we cross the present crisis,” said the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy. The EC had said in its plea that the media was sensationalising the oral observations made by the court against it.

The bench said: “Two aspects cannot be missed: the first is the Union’s endeavour to indicate the surge in numbers may have been unexpected and preparatory measures had been taken for quite some time, and the second is the Election Commission’s concern at sensationalism. The postmortem on either count may have to wait, particularly in the light of the immediate measures that may be put in place.”
The court made the observation when a suo motu PIL initiated by it to monitor the Tamil Nadu government’s preparedness to tackle the second wave of the pandemic came up for further hearing.
The immediate concern is what may happen during vote counting on May 2, it added. “Leaders of political parties should ensure that the rank and file maintain a degree of discipline and exercise extreme restraint,” the court said. Party leaders should keep supporters in check, ensure there is no rally or bursting of crackers, the court added, adjourning the plea to May 5.