PIL filed before Delhi High Court to allow jailed politicians to campaign for elections

A public interest litigation petition (PIL) has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to develop a mechanism to ensure that arrested political leaders and candidates can campaign in elections..The PIL has been filed by one Amarjeet Gupta and prays that the ECI must come up with a mechanism to allow arrested leaders to campaign through virtual conferences, unless they are convicted.In his plea, Gupta argued that he is aggrieved by the timing of arrests of various political leaders after the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections came into force on March 16, 2024..He referred to the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and said that the arrest deprived the people of Delhi of their fundamental right to get information from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by way of being spectator/listeners of the election campaign.The right of voters to be informed about the ideology, plans and programs of the AAP has been curtailed on account of Kejriwal’s arrest, the plea stated.“Further, the leaders of political parties are also deprived of their constitutionally guaranteed fundamental and legal right to campaign during the election,” the plea argued. It added, "It is pertinent to mention that there are different political parties in power ruling the Government of NCT of Delhi and the Government of India. In fact, both the political parties are in opposition to each other. Therefore, the timing of the arrest of the aforesaid party leader vitiates the level playing field as his right to campaign has been curtailed due to the action of the Directorate of Enforcement. Further, the right of voters to be informed about the ideology, plans and programs of the Aam Aadmi Party has been curtailed on account of the arrest.”.The petition has sought directions to be issued to the Central government to inform ECI immediately when a political leader or a candidate is arrested.Gupta argued that when the MCC is in force, the ECI is informed about the people who are put in preventive detention but the arrests made by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are not communicated to the Election Commission.