NEW DELHI: Dealing a second blow to the Election Commission ’s position on an issue in less than six months, the Delhi High Court has last week set aside the EC order disqualifying BJP ’s Cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh Narottam Mishra , on grounds of paid news The latest HC order could draw a red line for the EC on the subject of ‘paid news’ as it says that the Commission’s remit is limited to election expenditure incurred by a candidate and not content of speech.“Election Commission’s remit cannot ordinarily extend to judging content of speech; it is only to adjudge whether the election expenses incurred by the candidate or someone on her or his behalf, under her or his authority have been accounted under Section 77,” said the Delhi HC’s May 18 order.The order has set aside both — the EC order disqualifying Mishra for three years and the single Judge order upholding it. Stating that the two had “erred” in interpreting a range of rules, the Delhi HC order says that “the content of a media article, or a news feature or series of features on particular candidates should ordinarily not be regulated indirectly through the directives of EC; there essentially fall within the domain of free speech”.The order further argues that “any indirect control would impact a citizen’s right to free speech and expression” and such indirect control would “chill the right and freeze all debates-essential to democracy”.It also observes that conclusion of tribunals or courts looking at electoral reforms are to be based on facts “established by evidence” and “assumption based stimulative decisions are to be avoided”.The HC order comes at a time when the EC has identified paid news as a major challenge to conducting of free and fair elections. It was also banking considerably on the Narottam Mishra case to take its fight against ‘paid news’ a step ahead as it feels that this particular case was an instance where the entire local machinery appeared to work in concert.There were 15 such cases in the just concluded assembly elections in Karnataka and all of them were ultimately acknowledged by the political parties in question and accordingly added to the candidate’s electoral expenditure, sources in EC said.EC data on previous assembly elections also claims high number of paid news cases. In 2017, Gujarat scored high on paid news as did Punjab with 80 cases and Uttar Pradesh with 56. In the 2016 assembly elections, there were 17 cases in Tamil Nadu, five in Assam and one in West Bengal. Bihar saw seven cases of ‘paid news’ in 2015. Over 600 paid news complaints were forwarded by EC to Press Council of India with reference to the 2014 LS polls, the government had shared in Lok Sabha.The EC had in July 2017 disqualified the MLA from Datia constituency in MP after it claimed to have established 42 cases of ‘paid news’ in the newspapers in the run-up to polls in 2008. The 69-page EC order observed how the local administration and electoral office bearers ignored the plying of promotional media material disguised as news in newspapers between 8 and 27 November, 2008.