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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, Jan 2: A blanket ban on Opinion Polls or Exit Polls concerning the forthcoming general elections, mooted by Press Council of India (PCI) chairman P B Sawant, has been questioned by legal experts.
Senior advocate and Constitutional expert Rajiv Dhawan said, “This will be against the very essence of democracy and is no good in law.”
Concurring with this view, senior advocate Arun Jaitley said, “If any such order is passed, it will be against the right of every citizen to express himself with regard to issues in the election and the possible outcome.”
Jaitley added that Opinion Poll was inherent with the freedom of speech and could not be interdicted during the elections.
While former Additional Solicitor General A M Singhvi stressed that the proposed ban lacked rationale, effectiveness and legality, H D Shourie, who has fought several legal battles for public interest as the president of `Common Cause’ organisation, said, “Several such Opinion Polls had been conducted in the past but they did not have much of an impact on actual polling. So why such an order now?”
Such a ban was also not in the right spirit of democracy, according to psephologist G V L Narasimha Rao. “Opinion Polls are an essential part of the actual poll process,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) is yet to make up its mind on pre-poll surveys, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) M S Gill said in Chandigarh today.
Gill, who was addressing a press conference here, also defended the raised expenditure limit for Lok Sabha elections, saying Rs 15 lakh was “quite reasonable” and added that the EC would press the candidates to stay within this limit and give reasonable statements about expenses.
Gill also added that the Commission had sent a comprehensive proforma to all the 43 recognised political parties to maintain their election accounts. He said that according to a Supreme Court judgement last year, the Commission had the necessary powers to ask political parties to file their accounts.
The CEC added that if a political party hired any plane or helicopter for electioneering, it would have to include such hire charges in its election account. Gill was in Chandigarh to review poll arrangements for the February 16 Lok Sabha elections with chief secretaries, Director Generals of Police, home secretaries and chief electoral officers of Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh.
