29 December,2021 07:47 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Photo for representational purpose
The Uttarakhand High Court sent a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday on a plea seeking postponement of upcoming Assembly elections in the state in view of the threat posed by Omicron variant.
As per a report in Bar and Bench, a division bench of acting Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Narayan Singh Dhanik directed the counsel appearing for the Centre and Uttarakhand government to obtain instructions on the plea and listed the case for further hearing on January 3.
Assembly elections in Uttarakhand might be held in February-March 2022 and all the major political parties have already started campaigning. The plea has attached pictures of the rallies conducted by the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party as well as the Congress showing huge crowds without adhering to social distancing norms or Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
The application was moved by advocate Shiv Bhatt in a bunch of Public Interest Litigation petitions (PILs) which were pending before the High Court through which the court has been monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state.
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The present application that the new Omicron variant is spreading over 300 per cent faster than any other variant of Covid-19 and therefore, to protect the lives of people it has become necessary that large gatherings like election rallies be avoided.
"The Assembly Elections in the State of Uttarakhand is going to be scheduled in the month of February-March, 2022 and for which as on date there are enormous âElection Rallies' being held by all the Political Parties. It is pertinent to state here that in the above election rallies of the political parties neither the social distancing was followed nor people have worn Mask. The photographs and the videos are available on âYouTube'," read the application.
The plea also sought a direction to all the political parties to conduct their rallies only virtually while also asking the Court to ban gatherings during the New Year celebrations.
