SC says COVID can't be ground for postponing polls, dismisses PIL for deferring Bihar elections
New Delhi: Stating that COVID-19 cannot be a ground for postponing elections, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL seeking to defer the Bihar assembly polls till the state is free of the novel coronavirus.
The Election Commission of India will consider everything, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said.
The bench, also comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah, said it is a premature petition as no notification for the assembly polls has been issued till now.
The petitioner, Avinash Thakur, had sought a direction to the Chief Election Commissioner to postpone the polls due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the ground that the Representation of the People Act provides for the deferment of polls in extraordinary situations.
How can we ask the Election Commission of India (ECI) to not hold elections? COVID cannot be a valid ground for postponement of elections, the bench stated.
The petitioner's counsel said the RP Act provides for the deferment of polls due to an extraordinary situation. To this the bench said it is for the ECI to decide and the court cannot direct the poll panel to not hold elections.
The petitioner's counsel also argued that elections are not paramount but human life is, and even MLAs and common people are suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bench said it cannot pass orders for the deferment of polls and the ECI will take into account every situation. It said no writ can be applied like this and dismissed the PIL.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
