Compulsory home quarantine of persons who campaigned in Bengal polls, plea in Delhi HC

By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], April 27 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday received a petition seeking direction to ensure compulsory home quarantine of persons who campaigned in the Assembly Elections in West Bengal, over the last one week.
The matter is scheduled to be heard on April 30.
The application has been moved through Advocate Virag Gupta which seeks direction to recover the penalty from all political parties on the basis of crowd claimed to be in road shows and rallies, which was in violation of COVID-19 guidelines of the Election Commission.
The fresh direction also seeks to lodge FIRs against all-star campaigners and leaders of all political parties who openly violated masking and social distancing guidelines of the Election Commission.
The plea also requested for the prosecution of officials of the Election Commission who failed to enforce COVID guidelines issued by themselves, despite the legal representation of the petitioner.
The intervention application was moved by former DGP Dr Vikram Singh and Chairman of think tank CASC in the ongoing matter and sought direction to Election Commission to prominently publish on its website, mobile apps, election materials, and other platforms the "Election Commission Guidelines for the conduct of general elections/bye-elections during COVID-19" published in August last year.
Owing to the surge in COVID-19 cases in West Bengal, the Madras High Court had earlier said that ECI officials should probably be "booked for murder", the plea states.
Even the Delhi High Court had issued notice to ECI on plea to ensure masks are worn during election campaigns.