Supreme Court Petition Filed Against Election Polls and Candidate Endorsements by Online News Portal

Kathmandu. A writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court demanding a halt to the dissemination of news that constitutes opinion polls or endorsement of any candidate for the House of Representatives elections.

Ayush Badal and Akash Dhakal, students at Kathmandu University School of Law, along with advocate Abhas Regmi, filed the writ in the Supreme Court seeking a mandamus order to stop the publication of such news, alleging that Setopati Online published news against the election code of conduct.

 The petition states that the online portal's publications violate the Journalist Code of Conduct, 2073, and the Election Code of Conduct, 2082, thereby nullifying the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed to citizens under Article 27 and creating confusion.

The materials published by the online portal, titled "Sobita Gautam will win the election in Chitwan-3: Renu Dahal second," "Main contest between Raju Pandey and Kulman Ghising in Kathmandu-3," dated 2082/11/8, "Bipin Acharya of RSP is far ahead of others in Dang-2," dated 2082/11/10, "Sulabh Kharel of RSP is far ahead of other candidates in Rupandehi-2," and dated 2082/11/11, "Sishir Khanal of RSP is ahead again in Kathmandu-6," are argued to be unconstitutional, illegal, malicious, and arbitrary at first glance, as well as completely contrary to international human rights law.

Similarly, the writ petition against the online portal was also registered on Thursday. The online portal filed the writ petition making the Election Commission and the Press Council the respondents.

 The writ was filed demanding the right to present the views of the voters. Both writs were registered on Thursday and the hearing is scheduled for Friday.