New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday rejected the BJP demand that Commissioner Navin Chawla must not participate in the hearing of the matter relating to the release of a controversial compact disc.

The full Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami and Commissioners S.Y. Qureshi and Chawla, in its order, said: "It is true that there is a case pending in the Supreme Court [against Mr. Chawla]. But the mere pendency of a case cannot ipso facto lead to the conclusion of existence of bias or apprehension of the same. The Commission, therefore, sees no reason to constitute a Bench of only two Commissioners, and instead decides that all three members would hear the matter further and adjudicate on it."

Show cause notice

The Commission on April 5 issued a suo motu notice, asking the Bharatiya Janata Party to show cause why action should not be taken against it under paragraph 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, for having released/displayed/distributed the CD containing inflammatory material, derogatory to the sentiments of a certain community, in connection with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Subsequently, the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Jan Morcha intervened in the proceedings.

Apprehension of bias

At the April 9 hearing, the BJP submitted an application praying that Mr. Chawla recuse himself from adjudicating the matter, as it had a reasonable apprehension of bias on his part.

The BJP said it had presented a petition to the President, seeking the removal of Mr. Chawla under Article 324 (5) of the Constitution, and also referred to the writ petition pending before the Supreme Court. The party pressed this as a preliminary issue for determination by the Commission before proceeding with the hearing of the CD issue.

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