Election Commission of Inida (ECI) has slapped a notice on senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Shankarrao Chavan over paid news.

EC in its notice has asked Mr. Chavan to respond as to why he should not be disqualified under section 10A of Representation of People Act, 1951.

In its order on the case of paid news, EC has given the  Ashok Chavan (Curently he is Lok Sabha MP) 20 days time to respond as to why he should not be stripped of membership of the house and disqualified to contest an election for a period of three years.

The EC, on the directions of the Supreme Court, has issued a notice to Mr Chavan.

The full bench of the EC comprising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) V S Sampath and Election Commissioners H S Brahma and S N A Zaidi issued the 104-page order.

They have reserved their decision on the issue till June 19.         

Ashok Chavan paid media case

In the 2009 September/October Maharashtra Assembly election allegations were made against Ashok Chavan that, he got several advertisements published in news media by his opponents.

These advertisements were to be amounted to `paid news’ but, it was not included in the expenditure incurred in his election expenses statement.

With regard to this, complaint was filed in EC against Ashok Chavan by his opponents.

However, Mr. Chavan refused to accept his involvement in paid media case and mentioned that he has no 'knowledge' of the advertisements.

Note: The newspapers Lokmat and Pudhari which had published the advertisement have admitted to be sympathisers of the Congress Party.

Election commission decision on this case

• EC has mentioned that the respondent has failed to lodge his account of election expenses in the manner required by the Act and Rules. So the Commission has directed the MP Ashok Chavan show cause in terms of Rule 89(5) of the 1961-Rules why he should not be disqualified under section 10A of the 1951-Act.
• The EC has proceeded against Mr. Chavan on ground of non-submission of election expenses within time frame as `paid news’ is not an offense under the RPA.
• The Commission has strongly indicted a section of the media for its promoting the Congress Party’s prospects in the 2009 general elections to the Maharashtra Assembly.
• It said the news articles cannot be treated as general news in normal course as these are quite clearly received from political parties and reproduced by all such newspapers so as to pass as general news.

A proposal by EC is pending with the government to amend the RPA, 1951 for making `paid news’ as an offense.

The EC proposal in paid news offence has sought to provide publishing and abetting the publishing of `Paid News’ for furthering the prospect of election of any candidate or for prejudicially affecting the prospect of election of any candidate is made an electoral offence with punishment of a minimum of two years imprisonment.

Section of 10A RPA- `Disqualification for failure to lodge account of election expenses’  

It mentions that

If the Election Commission is satisfied that a person—

a)  Has failed to lodge an account of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by or under this Act;

b)  Has no good reason or justification for the failure,

Election Commission shall, by order published in the Official Gazette, declare him to be disqualified and any such person shall be disqualified for a period of three years from the date of the order.

Under Rule 89 (5) Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961(Statutory Rules and Order)

The Election Commission decides that a contesting candidate has failed to lodge his account of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by the Act and shall call upon the candidate to show cause why he should not be disqualified under section 10A for the failure.