The Delhi High Court today rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to formulate a mechanism to ascertain that arrested political leaders and candidates can campaign in elections through video conference.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora stopped short of imposing costs on the petitioner, who is a law student but told his counsel to teach him about the separation of powers.
The Acting Chief Justice remarked that if all the people arrested are allowed to campaign in the election through video conference, then all the dreaded criminals will form political parties. He added that Dawood Ibrahim would contest elections and campaign through VC.
The bench said that it does not want to get into the political thicket but everyone wants the Court to enter into the political domain. ACJ Manmohan stated that in the last few weeks, the court has dealt with multiple petitions which either say put a person in jail or let him be released.
The Delhi High Court observed that there is propaganda involved in the petition and the court is aware of that. The bench added that the petition was contrary to fundamental principles of law. The High Court also warned that it will impose more than Rs 75,000 costs on the petitioner since he has filed the plea despite the fact that the Court had previously rejected a plea seeking extraordinary interim bail for Arvind Kejriwal. The previous plea was dismissed with costs of Rs 75,000.
Subsequently, the petitioner’s counsel told the court that the petitioner is a law student and the cost may not be imposed. The bench then said that it will not impose costs if the counsel teaches the petitioner about separation of powers.
The plea was lodged by Amarjeet Gupta and prayed that the ECI must come up with a mechanism to allow arrested leaders to campaign through video conference, unless they are convicted.