NE LEGAL BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, AUG 7
The Gujarat High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Election Commission (ECI) over a PIL seeking indefinite postponement of the yet-to-be-announced by-elections to eight Assembly seats in the state in view of the coronavirus outbreak.
Apart from the ECI, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J B Pardiwala also issued a notice to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Gujarat and kept August 19 as the next date of hearing.
The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by social worker Farsubhai Goklani, claiming that the virus would spread further if the by-elections are held.
The poll watchdog is yet to announce the date for the bypolls to the eight seats, which fell vacant in March and June following the resignation of Congress MLAs.
These seats are Dhari, Abdasa, Limbdi, Gadhda, Dang, Karjan, Morbi and Kaprada.
In the PIL, Goklani argued that around 19 lakh registered voters of these eight constituencies face the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection if elections are held, as they will have to visit the polling booths to cast votes.
Moreover, there exists a risk of human-to-human transmission during campaign rallies and meetings to be held in these eight constituencies, the PIL said, adding that it will not be possible to maintain social distancing during campaigning and polling exercise.
“If schools, colleges and all kinds of gatherings have been put on hold in the wake of the pandemic, why can’t the election exercise can be postponed till the situation improves,” the petitioner argued.
