Judicial Decisions

Secy., Ministry of Information & Broadcasting v. M/s Gemini TV Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.

The Supreme Court under article 142 of the Constitution of India passed an order binding all political parties, candidates, persons, group of persons or Trusts, who propose to insert advertisements which are wholly or mainly political in nature or directed towards a political end in the electronic media, including cable networks and/or television channels, to get certification from the Election Commission. The application of certification must contain details including the cost of production, cost of proposed telecast, statement containing whether the advertisement is for the benefit of the prospects of the parties’ elections and if the advertisement is issued by a person other than a political party or a candidate, that person shall, in his/her oath, state the advertisement is neither for the benefit of a political party/candidate nor sponsored/paid/ commissioned by any political party/candidate. This order has created a censorship regime of all advertisements a political party or candidate wishes to telecast on cable. The Court said that the provisions of Section 126 of the Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1951 which prohibits campaigning 48 hours prior to the hour fixed for conclusion of poll shall apply to the advertisements specified by the order.

N. Chandrababu Naidu &Ors. v. Union of India & Anr.

The Supreme Court bench comprising of the Chief Justice along with Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna JJ. ordered the Election Commission to increase the number of EVMs which are subject to manual verification from 1 to 5 per Assembly Constituency or Assembly segments in a Parliamentary Constituency. The writ petition filed by representatives of 21 political parties prayed before the Hon’ble SC to issue an order quashing Guideline 16.6 of the Manual on Electronic Voting Machine and VVPAT and increase the VVPAT paper slip verification to 50% of EVMs per constituency. VVPAT feature was introduced to verify that the vote polled by a voter goes to the correct candidate. When a voter presses the button on the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machine against the chosen candidate, a printed VVPAT slip is displayed for 7 seconds before it's automatically cut and delivered to a sealed ballot compartment. Guideline 16.6 of the Manual on EVM and VVPAT provides for the paper slip verification of 1 EVM per Constituency/Segment and the procedure of the draw of lots undertaken to select that 1 EVM. The petitioners contended that to ensure fool proof election results it is necessary for such increase to be implemented. The Election Commission responded claiming to have posed a query to the Indian Statistical Institute asking about the reasonable sample size required to ensure integrity of the electoral process. The ISI’s report stated that the current procedure generates over 99% accuracy in election results. The ECI also pointed out to the inadequate infrastructure and manpower which would delay the results by 5-6 days if the verification of EVMs is increased to 50%. The Court was of the opinion that the exercise proposed by the petitioners would be a futile one and there was no doubt insofar as the fairness and integrity of the ECI and the system was concerned. However, the Court said that keeping in mind infrastructure and manpower difficulties, if the number of EVMs which are subject to verification can be increased to a reasonable number, the same should be done for greater satisfaction amongst not only the political parties but the entire electorate.