New Delhi (IL News Service): The Supreme Court today dismissed as withdrawn a PIL filed by Ajay Kumar, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to postpone the general elections for the Bihar Assembly in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
A three-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M. R. Shah observed that the Election Commission will take care of all concerns. The Election Commission has recently issued a statement to conduct the elections of Bihar Assembly on schedule.
The petitioner said that a similar petition had been dismissed earlier, but the situation on the ground has not improved.
The bench stuck to its ground and said that it cannot pass such an order. The bench said: “In the earlier order we had noted that the Chief Election Commissioner will take care of all the issues.”
At that the petitioner asked for liberty to make a representation (with this PIL) before ECI.
To that the bench agreed.
The PIL had said that it was not possible that elections would be held smoothly within this Covid 19 pandemic. The petition said that it is well known that right from the notification of the elections till the result of the election the interaction of person will be unavoidable.
The PIL reminded that as per the guidelines of WHO all interactions should be avoided. Hence, the holding of elections in the current scenario can be dangerous. The petition also said that the state of Bihar has already experienced violence during campaigning and this it is not a matter of just one or two days, but involves a month. The conducting of virtual election can be unfair and unjust to people who are admitted in hospitals, home quarantined and in containment zones.
As we already know the state of Bihar is still an underdeveloped state and the literacy rate in Bihar is very low. There are a large number of people who don’t have access to smartphones or internet connections
–said the petitioner.
The petitioner pleaded to withhold the Bihar Assembly elections till the situation becomes normal.
-India Legal Bureau