Impaired foresight of EC, Govt caused disaster in UP: HC

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court has made some relevant observation to the extent of holding the UP government and the Election Commission accountable for catastrophe in the state due to the spurt of the second COVID wave.

The Court said both the State government and the Election Commission had failed to forecast the adverse and the disastrous impact of allowing to happen elections in five states and the Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh.

According to the Court, the infection of the novel coronavirus, which had not reached the village population in its first wave of spread in the last year, has now spread to the villages.

"The State Government is having a tough time in controlling the spread of novel coronavirus in urban areas and it would be very difficult to conduct the test, detect and treat the village population found suffering from novel coronavirus. The State lacks preparation and resources for the same at present," the Court noted.

The observations were part of an order passed by single-judge Justice Siddharth granting anticipatory bail to a person in relation to a case registered under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 506, 406 IPC at Police Station Sihani Gate, Ghaziabad.

The application was filed by one Prateek Jain, a resident of Ghaziabad, who was booked for cheating, forgery, fraud, criminal intimidation, and criminal breach of trust.

This would be the second instance of the Election Commission being castigated by a High Court for its omissions with regard to the surge of COVID-19.