ILNS: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking ban on elections, as well as rallies in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, alleging that millions of people were not following the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health, during the election rallies.

The petition, filed by Advocate Vishal Thakre through Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav and Advocate on Record Sanjeev Malhotra, alleged that the Government and the authorities have failed to take necessary measures for the health and safety of the general public at large.

Both the Central Government and the State Government have failed to take action against those leaders, who were responsible for the mass gatherings, which were playing a major role in the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, argued the petitioner.

“India is currently showing a weekly national average positivity rate of 5.65 percent, with Maharashtra showing a weekly average of 23.4 percent, Punjab 8.82 percent, Chhattisgarh 8 percent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82 percent, Tamil Nadu 2.50 percent, Karnataka 2.45 percent, Gujarat 2.2 percent and Delhi 2.04 percent,”

-the plea alleged.

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It said elections were conducted in Bihar, while bypolls were held in several states in November, 2020 by not consulting the Health Ministry, which thereby, led to violating the COVID-19 norms.

The petitioner prayed to the top court to direct the government to notify the steps taken by them during the period between March, 2020 and March, 2021, to cure COVID-19 and also prayed for banning the rallies and stopping the ongoing elections till the time the condition becomes better.