The Delhi High Court rejected a plea seeking permission to jailed politicians to campaign and directing the National Election Commission to evolve a mechanism to ensure this. The division bench of Delhi High Court’s acting Chief Justice Manmohan Singh and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora did not impose any fine on the petitioner, a law student, but asked his lawyer to teach him about the separation of powers.
Commenting on this petition, the court said that you want that all the arrested people should be allowed to campaign through video conferencing. I am telling you, if this is done, all the dreaded criminals will form political parties. Dawood Ibrahim will contest elections and campaign through video conferencing. The bench said that it does not want to get into political trouble, but everyone wants the court to enter the political arena. In the last few weeks, the court has considered several petitions, in which it has been said that either to put a person in jail or to release him.
Court warned the petitioner
The court remarked that the petition involves propaganda and the court knows this. This also includes publicity and efforts are being made to involve the court in all this. This is becoming part of the strategy and do not think that we do not understand the strategy. It was also said in the petition that the petition is contrary to the basic principles of law. People have this perception that we are not bound by the law. The petitioners are asking us to act contrary to the law. You are asking us to make a law.
The court warned that it will impose a fine of more than Rs 75 thousand on the petitioner because the court had earlier rejected a petition seeking extraordinary interim bail for Arvind Kejriwal and had also imposed a fine of Rs 75 thousand on the petitioner. . Although the Court did not impose fine but said that as the lawyer appearing for the petitioner said that the petitioner is a law student and the fine cannot be imposed, if the lawyer teaches the petitioner about the separation of powers then that fine Will not apply.
Amarjeet Gupta had filed a public interest litigation
Let us tell you that this PIL was filed by Amarjeet Gupta and demanded that the Election Commission should create a mechanism to allow arrested leaders to campaign through video conferencing, unless they are convicted. The petitioner argued that he was aggrieved by the timing of the arrest of various political leaders after the Model Code of Conduct for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections came into force on March 16, 2024. He mentioned the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and said that the arrest has deprived the people of Delhi of their fundamental right to get information from the Aam Aadmi Party in the election campaign.
