The Allahabad High Court has taken judicial notice of 135 deaths of teachers, Shiksha Mitras and investigators, who were assigned election duty during the recently held Panchayat elections. While hearing the suo moto case of taking stock of Covid situation in the state, the bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Siddhartha Varma was presented with a letter petition with this news report by Amar Ujala newspaper.
While the court gave specific directions to ensure management of medical infrastructure in the state is able to sustain the Covid surge, the court found it imperative to take notice of these figures as well.
The court stated that it verified the news article which reported that the people have levelled allegations that during recent phases of the Panchayat elections held, none of the Covid guidelines have been followed. “It appears that neither the police nor, Election Commission did anything to save the people on election duty from getting infected by this deadly virus,” the court said.
The court thus directed that notice be issued to the State Election Commission to explain on the next date why it failed in checking non compliance of Covid guidelines during various phases of the panchayat elections, and why action may not be taken against it and its officials for the same and to prosecute those responsible for such violations.
The Commission is further directed to take immediately all such measures in forthcoming phases of panchayat elections in the state to ensure that the Covid guidelines of social distancing and face masking are adhered to strictly, else action is liable to be taken against the officials involved in the election process.
The matter will be next heard on May 3.
The complete order may be read here:
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