Lok Sabha polls | DMK approaches Madras High Court seeking pre-certification for its posters, videos and audio clippings

A committee headed by Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo had refused to grant pre-certification for the political advertisements on April 4

A motorist rides past the posters of DMK president M.K. Stalin in Coimbatore. File photo | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has approached the Madras High Court challenging orders passed by a committee headed by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), on April 4, refusing to grant pre-certification for some of the posters, videos and audio recordings planned to be used by the party during the ongoing campaign for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled on April 19.

The three writ petitions filed by the party, challenging the rejection orders, have been listed for admission before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad on Monday. The party has insisted upon quashing the rejection orders and consequently issuing a direction to grant pre-certification for the campaign materials.

In three identical affidavits, filed through his counsel S. Manuraj, the party’s organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi said, the Election Commission of India had on August 24, 2023 issued guidelines for regulating the advertisements by political parties. As per the guidelines, a State Level Certification Committee (SLCC) headed by an Additional/Joint CEO must pre-certify the advertisements.

Since the DMK had been issuing various advertisements under the Tamil title ‘Indiyavai Kaaka Stalin Azhaikkiren’ meaning Stalin calls you to protect India, it had submitted some of them for pre-certification. However, the SLCC led by a Joint CEO rejected pre-certification in March this year and the rejection orders were also upheld by a State level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) led by the CEO.

The rejections orders were passed by citing the provisions which prohibit advertisements which were likely to promote enmity on grounds of religion, race, language, caste or community, those which cast aspersions on the integrity of the President or the judiciary and those which criticise other parties or their workers on the basis of unverified allegations or by distorting the facts.

Challenging the rejection orders, the party contended that they had been passed mechanically without any application of mind and also with an inordinate delay. It said, the CEO had not given any specific reasons for rejecting the appeals filed by the party against the SLCC’s pre-certification rejection orders and therefore, it amounted to colourable exercise of power conferred upon the executive authority.