Election Commission (EC)
05 May 2014
The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by ex-Maharashstra chief minister Ashok Chavan into whether the Election Commission can probe "paid news" allegations in cases where the expense was not accounted for in candidates' election returns.
The bench of justices Surinder Singh Nijjar and Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla said that the Election Commission would hear the complaint for 45 days daily. A rival had alleged in 2009 that Chavan had paid for a supplement in a Marathi daily but had not disclosed the expense in the returns, which Chavan and the paper deny, with Chavan having approached the Delhi high court for a stay of the EC case in 2010, which was declined [IANS]