Uttarakhand HC issues notice to Election Commission on PIL seeking postponement of Assembly polls in state

Nainital (Uttarakhand) [India], December 29 : The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Election Commission and sought its response over the PIL seeking postponement of the Legislative Assembly elections in the state in wake of the COVID situation.
The High Court was hearing public interest litigation (PIL) regarding the matter today. The next hearing of the case will be on January 3.
The matter was heard in a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra and Justice NS Dhanik.
Advocate Shiv Bhatt submitted an application by attaching photographs of rallies being held against the COVID rules by various political parties, contrary to the orders of the court, in the PIL relating to Sachidanand Dabral et al. It has been mentioned that there is every possibility of spreading coronavirus infection in these rallies.
Referring to the new variant of coronavirus in his application, Advocate Shiv Bhatt said that it is spreading more than 300 per cent faster than any other variant of COVID and hence, it is necessary to protect the lives of the people. He said that big gatherings like election rallies should be avoided.
The petition also sought a direction to all political parties to hold their rallies virtually, as well as to ban parties from being held during New Year's celebrations from the court. The PIL said that the Election Commission of India should be given instructions in this regard to postponing the elections to the Legislative Assembly.
Assembly polls in Uttarakhand are slated for early next year.