The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed the PIL seeking postponement of the assembly elections in view of the coronavirus epidemic.
The Division Bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta passed this order while hearing a PIL filed by Rishi Kumar Trivedi.
By means of the writ petition, the petitioner has prayed mainly for the following relief:
a) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus, directing the opposite parties not to conduct in the month of February & March, 2022 and postpone the General Legislative Assembly Election-2022 of the State of U.P. till normalization of the Corona Pandemic.
The Court noted that a PIL is bound to be filed after undertaking deep research not only on the aspect of cause of action but the relevant facts and applicability of law in relation thereto as well.
In the case, the Court found that the petitioner has not been troubled even for gathering a copy of the notification whereunder the U.P General Assembly Elections or first phase election was notified. A writ of mandamus without assailing the decision of Election Commission of India notifying the U.P General Assembly Elections in phases, in procedurally invalid and non-maintainable.
“We have already dismissed PIL No 17 of 2022 (Atul Kumar and another v. Election Commission Of Bharat and another) by putting on record the reasons that merit for rejecting misconceived prayers impending election process in the State assembly as is the case at hand. We reiterate the reasons already put on record and are not convinced to interfere on the basis of a ground i.e Pandemic which the Commission, being a constitutional body, must have taken into consideration, with utmost responsibility,” the Court said.
The writ petition filed in public interest for want of maintainability is accordingly dismissed, the Court ordered.