Senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister Narottam Mishra was recently disqualified from Election Commission for three years for paid news charges. Supreme Court has agreed to give an urgent hearing to his plea.
He was disqualified by the poll panel on 23 June for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure related to articles and advertorials in media in the 2008 assembly polls. He was disqualified under various sections of the Representation of the People Act (RPA). The order said all the 42 news items, that appeared in five Hindi dailies, were “extremely biased in favor of” Mishra, adding its findings also strengthened the conclusion that he “knowingly participated or took advantage of the expenditure on such advertisements” that appeared as news in the publications. Rajendra Bharti was the main complainant in this case.
Mukul Rohatgi said that he has challenged the order of Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to give an urgent hearing to his interim prayer to allow him to vote in the presidential election. According to him, qualification does not mean that he can be barred from voting.
A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said ” We don’t want everyone to be here. You should come up with a remedy. There should be a solution.”