SC dismisses plea against Congress, says toolkit cannot be banned in democracy

NEW DELHI: Observing that use of 'toolkit' for political propaganda cannot be banned in democratic country like India, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking probe against Congress Party and its deregistration for allegedly creating a toolkit to malign the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on handling of Covid pandemic.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, at the outset of hearing, asked the PIL petitioner to ignore such a toolkit if he did not like it but the court could not pass a general order to ban it.
The petitioner advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha, however, contended that toolkits have been banned in many countries including Singapore. The bench thereafter reminded him that India is a democratic country and it cannot be done in a democracy. The court said if using of toolkit results in violation of any law then remedy lies under criminal law and court cannot pass order in a PIL
The court also observed that valuable court time is wasted in such PILs and refused to entertain the petition. The court, however, allowed him to withdraw the petition to approach high court.
The petitioner sought a probe into the controversy by the National Investigation Agency(NIA) and also pleaded with the court to restrain people from using photos of dead bodies and funerals of Covid victims.
He also sought SC's intervention to stop "portraying of anti-national stance including the usage of photos of funeral and dead bodies, naming of mutants after India and Indian Prime Minister and calling out a single religion for Covid-19"
He said in his petition said that the toolkit matter must be probed to disclose any offence under section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) and various other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and to secure the custody of the said toolkit.