Omicron Spread: Lawyer Moves Supreme Court Seeking Strict Guidelines For Adherence To Covid Protocols During Upcoming State Elections

In the wake of the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid 19, a lawyer has moved the Supreme Court of India seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to issue strict guidelines, policies, and directions for the practical enforcement and adherence to Covid-19 protocols during the upcoming state elections.

Further directions have been sought to instruct and order the political parties to conduct the promotional activities through the digital platforms.

The directions have been sought through an application filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari in a PIL filed by him earlier this year seeking directions to initiate guidelines and to adhere to the strict covid-19 guidelines during events like Elections and Kumbh Mela.

The plea has been filed with regard to the 5 states of this country which are Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand saying that the States have scheduled state elections to be conducted in February- March 2022 and large scale public campaigning, promotional activities and processions which are conducted by various political parties in lieu of the elections are at full swing.

According to the applicant, the recent emergence of the dominant variant – Omicron makes it a greater concern and demands greater responsibility to make sure that such upcoming election along with its present campaigning and public involvement does not escalate the situation of COVID-19.

The applicant has submitted that this is the most crucial time for the nation which demands greater policy, and guidelines making and it is of greater importance to restrict the public and community involvements in respect to the state and national level events.

The applicant has argued that the upcoming elections along with its present promotional campaigning, processions, public gatherings needs to be restricted under the notion of public health concerning the duty of the state to preserve the same which is an integral part under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

According to the applicant,  the rallies and public gatherings conducted by various political parties in West Bengal saw deep escalation of covid cases with single-day spike of seventeen thousand cases and hundred deaths per day in the month of May, 2021.

The applicant has argued that lack of enforcement measures and inefficient conduct of election promotional activities of the Election Commission of India along with derogatory actions and non-compliance to the COVID-19 guidelines by the political parties has been a serious threat to the public health of India with greater escalation of cases during the state elections conducted at West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Pondicherry in 2021.

According to the applicant, the country has not yet overcome the medical emergency caused by the second wave of Covid-19 in 2021, the health infrastructure was completely demolished and therefore the country is not prepared to tackle another disastrous wave of this virus and therefore such needs to be controlled.

Case Title: Vishal Tiwari vs Union of India