The bench said it was not questioning the credentials of the election commissioners appointed but the procedure.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday dared the opposition to share evidence of allegations that returning officers and district magistrates were influenced to vitiate the poll process so the panel could take action against them.
The elections will begin on April 19 followed by subsequent phases on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
The Election Commission Wednesday directed the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to refrain from making speeches on religious and communal lines, and opposition Congress from potentially divisive statements on the socioeconomic composition of the armed forces.
Addressing reporters at his residence soon after the meeting ended, Chowdhury said six names came up before the panel for the selection of the two ECs and the names of Sandhu and Kumar were finalised by a majority of members of the high-powered panel.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning from April 19 and the counting of votes will take place on June 4 for the world's biggest election exercise in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bid for a third consecutive term.
The first time the Election Commission has taken cognisance of a model code of conduct complaint against a sitting prime minister.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
A delegation of Congress leaders met the Election Commission and handed over complaints against the prime minister, alleging that he has trampled upon and violated the model code and directions of the poll body.
In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the Union law ministry rejected the petitioner's claim that the two election commissioners were hastily appointed on March 14 to "pre-empt" the orders of the top court the next day, when the matters challenging the 2023 law were listed for hearing on interim relief.
'One of the principles of the MCC that you should not make hate speeches and create hatred between communities on the basis of religion was violated on a scale that was never seen before.' 'Religious symbols were very liberally used and speeches were made to polarise people on the basis of religion.'
Senior bureaucrat Tarun Bajaj was appointed revenue secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle by the Centre on Tuesday.
Senior bureaucrat Pradip Kumar Tripathi has been appointed as secretary (coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Monday.
Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was elected president and Champat Rai general secretary of the Ram Temple trust at its first meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Home ministry officials told the parliamentary panel that those detained under the PSA can challenge their detention in a designated tribunal.
The Centre also justified the abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution which "enabled the then State to make laws giving special rights and privileges to permanent residents, while imposing restrictions upon others".
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