Bench says it cannot be swayed by media report unless issue was formally brought on record through an affidavit

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said it couldn’t be swayed by the media report unless the issue was formally brought on record through an affidavit. It would set a wrong precedent, the Bench said, asking the NGO — Association for Democratic Reforms — to file an affidavit bringing the facts to its notice, before seeking the EC’s response.

On behalf of the EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi took strong exception to the reliance placed by the NGO on the newspaper report and denied the allegations, saying the EC couldn’t be called to the court to abruptly respond to media reports at a time when substantial hearings on the issue have taken place.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing in the court on behalf of the NGO that has challenged the constitutional validity of a June 24 EC notice to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar, said the media report had made some very “disturbing” and “serious” allegations that norms were not followed during the SIR in Bihar.

He said lakhs of pre-filled notices seeking deletion of names were sent to the voters by the EC directly, even though under the Representation of the People Act, only the local electoral registration officer was empowered to issue such notices.

Dwivedi said if Bhushan still wished to pursue the accusation, he should place material on record through an affidavit, and claimed that the allegation was factually incorrect as all notices were issued by district election officers.

The CJI told Bhushan that according to established procedures, a response from the other side could only be sought if something was formally placed before the court.

The Bench perused the newspaper report and said the reporter had used the word “learnt”, which means it was based on information provided by a source.

Dwivedi said the report did not mention from where the information was “learnt” and how it was obtained.