CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a batch of PIL petitions praying for a direction to the Election Commission of India to postpone the Lok Sabha elections and by-elections scheduled for April 18 to some other date on religious grounds.

The bench dismissed the petitions filed by Dr Antony Pappusamy, archbishop and president of Tamil Nadu Bishop’s Council, Madurai, S Inigo Irudayaraj, managing trustee of Christuva Nallenna Iyakkam in St Thomas Mount and S Parthasarathy of Madurai.

The court observed, “It is well settled that the court should not ordinarily, except in rarest of rare cases, interfere with the schedule fixed by the Election Commission.”