A plea was filed on Monday (March 1, 2021) by Lawyer M L Sharma in the Supreme Court, challenging model code of conduct kicked in on Friday in Bengal with the election commission's decision of conducting assembly elections over eight phases in West Bengal. Claims have been made that the aforementioned proposed model is in violation of Article 14 ( equality before the law and equal protection before the law) and Article 21 (No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law) of the Constitution.
Assembly elections however in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be held in one phase on April 6 and in Assam over three phases. The rationale behind such structure of poll schedule being that decisions are based on several local factors, including movement of forces.
The plea also seeks for the CBI to register an FIR into the alleged chanting of religious slogans by the Trinamool Congress party in the state of West Bengal, as the chanting of provocative slogans such as “Jai Shree Ram” is creating disharmony and is an offence under IPC andS.123(3) & 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which does not permit a candidate or anybody associated with the election to promote feeling of hatred on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language.
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