The Supreme Court of India will hear today the petition to postpone Bihar by-elections.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition seeking postponement of by-elections to four assembly seats in Bihar in view of the week-long Chhath Puja.

According to the cause list published on the apex court website, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan will on Monday hear the petition which was filed by Jan Suraj Party on November 10.

Two days ago, a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud had agreed to consider listing the petition after mentioning the matter for urgent hearing.

about the argument

The petition filed before the apex court had challenged the Election Commission's “failure” in not postponing by-elections in Bihar while rescheduling elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala due to social and religious incidents.

It said by-elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, Kerala etc were rescheduled from November 13 to 20 due to large-scale social and cultural gatherings, which may impact voter turnout.

The petition states that similar conditions exist in Bihar and not postponing the by-elections in Bihar is not only unjust but also a violation of the right to equal treatment under Article 14 of the Constitution.

“Material issues and the possibility of low voting percentage are as much a matter of concern in Bihar as they are in Uttar Pradesh,” the petition said. There is no reason and no clear difference that elections in Bihar should be treated differently,” Karanjawala & Co protested.

Further, it said that postponing the four by-elections in Bihar will not cause inconvenience to a large number of voters, will promote their participation in the electoral process and strengthen the democratic process.

The petition states that “more than 40 Chhath Puja organizing committees have also written to the Election Commission of India on the same issue” and that the Election Commission's failure in not postponing the dates has violated the fundamental rights of voters on a large scale . It said the conduct of the Election Commission smacks of “arbitrariness” in arbitrarily changing the dates of some elections but not others, despite similar socio-religious circumstances.

“The selective behavior of the Election Commission in processing the deferment requests violates the basic principles of natural justice, as it disregards the petitioners' legitimate expectation of equal treatment,” the plea said.

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