Postpone UP elections, ban rallies: Court urges poll body, PM Modi over Omicron spread

The court also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban election-related gatherings in the state and think about postponing state elections over fears of the highly contagious Covid variant Omicron.

"If rallies are not stopped, results will be worse than the second wave," Justice Shekhar Yadav said.

The judge made these observations after pointing out that the court was regularly crowded as hundreds of cases were listed daily and social distancing was not followed by the large number of people who gathered there.

"There's a possibility of the third wave of Covid as the cases of the new variant Omicron are rising," the judge observed.

He also quoted news reports about the number of Covid cases and mentioned countries that have enforced lockdowns.

"Gram Panchayat elections and the Bengal assembly elections infected a lot of people, which caused many deaths as well," the judge said.

He pointed out that political parties are organising rallies and gatherings for the upcoming UP assembly elections and following Covid protocols in such events is impossible.

Judge Yadav requested the EC to prohibit rallies and gatherings of any kind ahead of the assembly elections and to direct political parties to campaign through Doordarshan or newspapers instead of physical events

Invoking Article 21 of the Constitution, he said all Indians have a right to life.