The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a PIL which referred to actor-cum-politician Kamal Haasan's remark about Mahatma Gandhi's assassin being a Hindu terrorist and had sought directions to the Election Commission (EC) to "restrict" misuse of religion for poll gains. The court, however, asked the EC to expeditiously decide Upadhyay's representation against Haasan's remark. The petition, filed by Upadhyay, has also sought debarring of candidates and deregistration of parties that "misuse" religion for electoral gains. Upadhyay, also a lawyer, has alleged that Haasan "deliberately" made the statement in the presence of a Muslim majority crowd for electoral gain. It has also said that despite the alleged misuse of religion for electoral gain by Haasan, the EC has not done any thing in this regard yet.

Source: dna May 15, 2019 08:03 UTC