Assembly Elections 2022: Delhi HC Refuses To Entertain Congress Leader's Plea To Postpone Polls In Five States Amid Third COVID Wave

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea filed by Congress Leader Jagdish Sharma seeking postponement of polls in States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa in view of the growing cases of new Covid-19 variant Omicron.

The Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh expressed their displeasure and termed the petition as "frivolous" amid decline in the cases. It asked the counsel for the petitioner to withdraw the plea and warned that the same will otherwise be dismissed with cost.

Accordingly, the plea was withdrawn from Court.

The assembly elections in the said five states are starting from February 10 and will end on March 7.

Moved through Advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, the plea sought directions for arrangement of essential services and supplies during the third wave.

"That in the last year in the month of March- April the country has faced a situation that was never seen/heard by anyone. The situation was in such a worst that the cemetery were full house with dead bodies, many had to wait for 3-4 days to perform the last rituals for dead body. The Holy River Ganga was covered with corpses and International media community was making mockery of the Health Infrastructure of the country," the plea read.

The plea also sought directions for mandatory 14 days or less quarantine for the people returning from the five states in question.

Case Title: Jagdish Sharma v. UOI 

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 66