Postponing elections not court's job: Uttarakhand High Court refuses to defer State Assembly elections

Postponing elections is not the job of the Court, the Uttarakhand High Court observed on Thursday while refusing to defer the upcoming assembly elections in the State [Sachdanand Dabral v Union of India and Ors].A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice NS Dhanik also refused to pass any directions banning physical rallies. ."Postponing elections is not the job of the Court... The Election Commission of India (ECI) has already given certain directions. ECI is such an institution which is unique. EC is doing a commendable job. Nothing is perfect," ACJ Mishra remarked. .The observations came after advocate Shobhit Saharia, appearing for ECI, informed the Court that physical rallies have already been banned till January 15 in poll bound States and that further guidelines will be issued after the ECI takes stock of the situation. Saharia argued that poll body has already allowed online nomination process and limited the number of people allowed to accompany the candidate for physical nomination to two. He further said that restrictions have also been imposed on the number of star campaigners along with several other steps to control crowding. .Assembly elections in Uttarakhand are scheduled to be held on February 14, 2022 and all the major political parties have already begun their campaign. .The High Court was hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions concerned with the State's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. An application was moved by advocate Shiv Bhatt in these PILs seeking postponement of elections in view of surge in COVID-19. The Court had issued notice to the Election Commission on the plea on December 29, 2021. The application stated that the new Omicron variant is spreading 300% faster than any other variant of Covid and therefore, to protect the lives of people it is 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 ‘Election 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 ‘YouTube’,” the application said..The Court, however, has now asked the State government to consider giving booster dose to senior citizens suffering from co-morbidities at their homes. .The case will be considered again on February 15. .[Omicron threat] Uttarakhand High Court notice to Election Commission on plea seeking postponement of assembly elections