Kerala legislator P.C. George on Monday withdrew his petition seeking a postponement of the local body elections in the State owing to the pandemic.
A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said Mr. George was free to pursue his remedies in the Kerala High Court “relating to option of postal ballots for being made available to the senior citizens and COVID-19 suspects / affected persons.”
The local body polls are scheduled in December. Mr. George had urged the apex court to direct it to be postponed to March next year. The legislator had made an earlier plea before the Election Commission. A subsequent appeal to the High Court had also failed, following which he had moved the Supreme Court.
“Election commission has dealt with the then problems as on date of the proceedings, i.e.; October and did not consider future problems. The report of the Health Director and the Chief Secretary is confined to the COVID-19 problems up to the month of September. The future problems, i.e.; the hike in the spread of COVID-19 in the month of October to December etc; were not incorporated in the reports of the Health Officer and the Chief Secretary,” the petition in the apex court said.
