Plea Before Court: Debar Poll Campaigners Without Masks

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission (EC) on the petition and asked them to reply to the plea.

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to debar campaigners and candidates from campaigning in the upcoming assembly elections for repeatedly violating the mandatory guidelines issued by the poll panel in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission (EC) on the petition and asked them to reply to the plea. The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 30. At the outset, advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing the poll panel, raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the petition and said neither the elections are being held in Delhi nor the alleged violation took place here.