The Allahabad High Court has taken serious note of the plastic material being used indiscriminately during campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.
The Division Bench of Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava passed this order while hearing a PIL filed by Akash Vashishtha.
In this petition, the petitioner, claiming himself to be actively interested in environmental issues, has filed the petition as a PIL seeking to raise the disposal of single use plastic items made of Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), particularly a they are used in banners/signages in the election campaign.
The counsel for the petitioner has sought to refer to various reports of expert bodies pointing out the adverse environmental impact which is likely to be caused in case of indiscriminate use of such PVC products. Reference has been made to certain advisories issued by the Election Commission of India from time to time containing certain directions in this regard.
Further, reference has been made to a set of statutory rules which regulate the handling, management and disposal of PVC products.
It is contended that despite the aforestated regulatory mechanism, the enforcement on part of the respondent authorities is inadequate and lacking.
The Court granted three weeks’ time to the Respondents to file their counter-affidavits.