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Supreme Court refers EC petition to Constitution bench

The Supreme Court today referred to a five-judge Constitution bench a writ petition filed by the Election Commission seeking enforcement of its ban on publication/dissemination of opinion polls and exit polls till the election ended on October 3.

The three-judge bench, comprising Justices S B Majumdar, M Srinivasan and U C Banerjee said as the issue raised in the petition involved interpretation of the EC's powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to hold free and fair polls, ''in our view, the matters should be placed before a five-judge Constitution bench for disposal.''

The judges said the EC counsel could now mention the petition before the Chief Justice for an application order. Even the application filed along with the petition seeking interim relief had to be placed before the Constitution bench, it said.

With the order, the bench disposed of two interlocutory applications in view of the substantive writ petition filed by the EC under Article 32 of the Constitution.

The EC, under its model code of conduct, had banned publication/dissemination of opinion polls and exit polls between 1700 hours on September 3 and 1700 hours on October 3.

Earlier, Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee objected to reports in a section of the press, creating an impression as if the Centre and the EC were on the warpath.

''We have the highest regard for the press. But it is ridiculous to say 'the Centre takes on the EC'. The Commission is a Constitutional authority. The issue involved is the powers of the Commission under Article 324 and we have our own perception about the ambit of power of the Commission under the Constitutional provisions,'' the AG added.

Senior counsel K K Venugopal, appearing for The Times of India which published an opinion poll during the first phase of the election, said the guidelines, issued by the EC under Section 126 of the Representation of People's Act, 1952, did not cover the print media and there was no stay against the print media in this regard.

UNI

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