Delhi HC grants time to EC on plea to ban candidates 

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday granted time to the Election Commission (EC) to file reply on a petition seeking to debar candidates from campaigning in Assembly elections for repeatedly violating the mandatory guidelines, including wearing masks, issued by the poll panel in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The EC submitted that the petition is now infructuous as it was for campaigning in the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, which got over in April. 

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted time to EC to file its response to the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on October 18. The petition by Vikram Singh, the former DGP of Uttar Pradesh and chairman of think tank Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), contended that despite the guidelines of the Centre, election campaigning was going on in full swing, without any regard to the Covid-19 regulations.