Chennai: Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the country. The Election Commission is under the question of the Assembly elections being held in the midst of the growing cases of Corona. Meanwhile, the Madras High Court on Monday strongly criticized the Election Commission for allowing political rallies during the Corona epidemic. The Chief Justice of the High Court told the Election Commission counsel, “Your institution is single-handedly responsible for the second wave of COVID-19”. The court said that if the “blueprint” of counting is not maintained, then the court will ban the counting of votes.
Criticizing the approval of the election campaign amid Corona’s case growing, the Madras High Court stated that “your institution (the Election Commission) alone is responsible for the second wave of Covid and your officers may be booked for possible murder.”
The High Court said that despite the court’s orders, the Election Commission failed to implement the Covid Safety Rules such as social distancing, use of masks and sanitizers during the election campaign. Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee questioned, “When election rallies were held, were you on another planet?”
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The High Court has also told about the plan to implement the Covid rules on the counting day i.e. May 2, till Friday. The court said that counting of votes can be stopped if information is not given to it.
The court said, “People’s health is paramount and constitutional authorities should remember this.” The court said that “Only when a citizen survives will he be able to exercise those rights which a democratic republic guarantees.”
