EC moves Madras HC to restrain media from reporting oral observations

Days after a stinging rap from the judiciary the Election Commission on Friday moved the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the media from reporting oral obesrvations of judges made on its role in conducting elections amid the COVID19 pandemic a plea the court refusedComments of murder charges against ECI officials and the institution being solely responsible for the surge in COVID19 cases had caused great damage and it had tarnished the ECs image its counsel contendedThe first bench refused to restrain the media both electronic and print from publishing the oral observations of the judges relating the role of EC in holding elections to four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry in the country during the second wave of the COVID19 pandemicLet us leave that matter at it was the reply of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy when the matter with regard to lapses in procuring COVID19 vaccines providing beds and ventilators and the alleged diversion of oxygen cylinders to other states came up again on FridayThe court had taken up the matter on its ownThe postmortem on either count may have to wait particularly in the light of immediate measures that may be put in place the CJ quipped when the EC senior counsel moved the court with the prayer to restrain the media from sensationalising the issueIt was a very difficult job to hold the elections during these difficult times Based on the observations of the courts certain people have approached the police with complaints and the latter had filed FIRs too the EC counsel said and prayed for some sort of protectionThe courts concerned would take care of such frivolous complaints being filed against the ECI lets not play a blame game the CJ saidThe court had taken up the matter not to issue directions by presuming itself as an expert on the subject of handling COVID19 but the focus was to make the governments act on the basis of experts adviceWe are the first to accept that we may not be qualified to take a call the CJ addedAdditional Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan told the bench that till December last year the COVID19 curve was flattening and in January it was fineOnly thereafter the surge was noticed in Maharashtra and KeralaA highlevel team was dispatched to Kerala to aid public health interventions for Covid management The Centre has done whatever was needed the ASG saidThe ECI sought a direction to the press and visual media which had reported the oral comments to issue a clarificationIt also wanted a direction to the police to not register any case on the basis of criminal complaints being filed against EC officials pursuant to the oral observationsThe Madras High Court had on Monday castigated the Election Commission over the COVID19 second wave in the country holding it singularly responsible for the spread called it the most irresponsible institution and even said its officials may be booked under murder chargesThe EC allowing political parties to take out rallies and meetings had led to the spread of the pandemic the court had saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever