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Allahabad High Court Dismisses Another PIL Seeking Postponement Of UP Assembly Polls Amid COVID Surge
Sparsh Upadhyay
29 Jan 2022 4:07 PM IST
The Allahabad High Court on Friday refused to entertain another Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking postponement of elections for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (scheduled to be held in Feb-March 2022) in view of the COVID surge. The bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta wasn't convinced to interfere on the basis of the ground raised in the...
The Allahabad High Court on Friday refused to entertain another Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking postponement of elections for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (scheduled to be held in Feb-March 2022) in view of the COVID surge.
The bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta wasn't convinced to interfere on the basis of the ground raised in the PIL i.e. Pandemic as it noted that the Commission, being a constitutional body, must have taken into consideration the pandemic situation, with utmost responsibility.
The instant plea, moved by one Rishi Kumar Pandey, the State Head of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Maha Sabha, had submitted before the Court that COVID will spread drastically if the election is conducted as per the scheduled as were are currently dealing with the third phase of COVID.
The counsel for the petitioner Shailendra Srivastava had submitted before the bench that the dates of the polls should be shifted and the polls should be deferred for a month as it would make no difference if the polls are conducted a month later.
Having heard the PIL, the Court noted that the petitioner had not even taken trouble for gathering a copy of the notification whereunder the U.P. General Assembly Elections or first phase election was notified.
"A writ of mandamus without assailing the decision of Election Commission of India notifying the U.P. General Assembly Elections in phases, is procedurally invalid and non-maintainable," the Court noted as it dismissed the PIL for want of maintainability is accordingly dismissed.
It may be noted that the Allahabad High Court on January 20 refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed in the Allahabad High Court seeking postponement of elections for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (scheduled to be held in Feb-March 2022) in view of the COVID surge.
The bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Narendra Kumar Johari heard the case and after the arguments, the court refused to entertain the PIL and said that reasons for the same shall be recorded later on.
Further, the Allahabad High Court recently dismissed a plea filed praying for a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide online training to the presiding officers (who are susceptible to COVID), for the upcoming assembly polls in the State.
The matter was heard in a special hearing conducted yesterday (Sunday) by the Bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav and it had sought ECI's reply as to whether training through online mode can be given to such individuals who were immunocompromised and whose family members were at risk.
Case title - Rishi Kumar Trivedi v. Election Commission of Bharat and Anr.
Case Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (AB) 26
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