Supreme Court declines to act on Congress plea against EC clean chits to Modi and Shah

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to pass any order on a Congress petition about the clean chits given by the Election Commission to BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a series of complaints of alleged poll code violations.

What the court said

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it could not examine orders passed by the Commission unless they were challenged on specific grounds.

The petition had been filed by Congress MP Sushmita Dev, who sought urgent directions to the poll body to decide on complaints that Modi and Shah had broken election law while campaigning. The two leaders were accused of making hate speeches and using the armed forces for political propaganda during their Lok Sabha campaigns.

The EC’s decisions

Of 11 complaints against the Prime Minister, the EC had cleared him in six. None of those orders had been published on the Commission’s website, as is usually done in other cases.

Deputy Election Commissioner Saxena said six of the 11 cases had been disposed of, that the Commission had filed its reply within the time given by the Supreme Court, and that it would not comment further as the matter was sub judice.

According to reports, one of the two Election Commissioners had dissented in some of the decisions of the full Commission to clear Modi. Sources said those decisions were taken by a 2:1 majority, as allowed under the law governing the Commission’s functioning.

See also: election news.

Originally published on 8 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us