SC satisfied over EC action against politicians

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its satisfaction on the action initiated by the Election Commission against Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, BSP chief Mayawati, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and Samajwadi Party's leader Azam Khan over their controversial remarks.

"It seems the Election Commission has got its power back. So, you have woken up to take actions," a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna told senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the poll panel.

The top court refused to consider a plea by Mayawati, who, represented by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, contended she has been left remedyless in view of the apex court's observations.

The bench said she can challenge the EC's order by filing an appropriate petition.

The court said, for now, no further order was required to be passed in a PIL filed by NRI Harpreet Mansukhani.

The court allowed senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioner, to raise the issue in future in case of any further violation of the model code of conduct did take place and the poll panel failed to take any action.

On Monday, when the court was hearing the PIL, the EC said its power was circumscribed and it was toothless.

It had then fixed the matter for Tuesday to examine power of the EC in such cases. Within hours, the poll panel censured Adityanath and Mayawati and barred them from addressing any public meeting for 72 and 48 hours respectively.

By the evening, it passed similar orders against Maneka and Khan.