Allahabad HC urges Centre to postpone UP elections amid rising Omicron cases

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday asked PM Narendra Modi and Election Commission to postpone upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh amid the rise in Omicron cases in the country.

The High Court has requested that the electoral process in the state should be delayed by at least a month or two.

Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav while passing an order on a bail application observed that people must exercise caution in view of the expected third wave of COVID-19 and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban election-related gatherings in the state.

It also directed political parties to campaign through Doordarshan or newspapers and not physical events.

"If there is life, election rallies and meetings can be held in future as well and Article 21 of the Constitution provides us the Right to Life," said Justice Yadav in his order in Hindi.

The HC judge, while praising the PM's vaccination drive, requested him, taking into consideration the "frightening situation", to take tough steps and consider deferring or stopping the rallies, meetings and elections. "Jaan hain toh jahan hain (if there is life, there is hope)," remarked the judge.

The judge made these observations after pointing out that the court was regularly crowded as hundreds of cases were listed daily and social distancing was not followed by the large number of people who gathered there.

"There's a possibility of the third wave of Covid as the cases of the new variant Omicron are rising," the judge observed. He then quoted news reports about the number of Covid cases and mentioned countries that have enforced lockdowns.

"Gram Panchayat elections and the Bengal assembly elections infected a lot of people, which caused many deaths as well," the judge said. He pointed out that political parties are organising rallies and gatherings for the upcoming UP assembly elections and following Covid protocols in such events is impossible.