Delhi HC dismisses petition seeking postponement of DSGMC elections amid rising COVID-19 infections

New Delhi [India], April 14 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the elections of the members of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) in view of the recent unprecedented spike of coronavirus cases in the national capital.
A division bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Amit Bansal dismissed the petition filed by Jagmohan Singh and Manjeet Singh Chugh. "There is no merit in the petition. Dismissed," the court said.
Jagmohan Singh and Manjeet Singh Chugh are voters in the Voters' List maintained by the Directorate of Gurdwara Elections, a body under the respondent Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) and responsible for the conduct of elections of the members of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.
The court opined that the decision, to hold or not to hold an election or allow or not to allow a particular event to take place, are matters of policy and policy matters are best left to the Executive Wing of the Constitution of India which has the wherewithal to take all relevant factors into consideration before arriving at a decision in such respect.
"Once a decision to hold the election has been taken, the election process begun and not stopped inspite of the rise in the number of infected persons in the city and normal life permitted to go on in the city save for a few restrictions and once it is shown that guidelines for ensuring that the holding of election does not lead to spread of COVID-19 any more than it is already taking place, the Court would not interfere in such policy matter," the court noted.
It also said that Delhi Government and the Central Government is already taking all steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19, without however restricting day to day life any more than necessary.
"...the general restrictions put in place by the Governments and being enforced, each institution is taking its own steps for restricting the spread of the Covid-19 virus and we are confident that not only will
GNCTD enforce guidelines already issued to prevent the spread of the virus during the election, a body as the DSGMC also, will take all possible steps to ensure that the conduct of elections is not a source of spread of the COVID-19 virus, " the court said.
"Merit is also found in the contention of the counsel for the respondent GNCTD that the petitioners ought to have disclosed the earlier filing by them, then seeking deferment of elections till framing of rules placing a ceiling on the election expenses incurred by the contesting candidates and which petition, after arguments, was not pressed. The conduct of the petitioners of seeking deferment of elections in the earlier petition as well as in the present petition does indeed raise a doubt that the petitioners are acting at the behest of the existing committee members who desire to perpetuate their term as members of DSGMC beyond the stipulated time," the court said.