[dropcap]A[/dropcap] vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna today declined to interfere with the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) rejecting the request seeking advancement of polling hours from 7 am to 5 am for the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha elections on account of unprecedented heat wave conditions in several parts of the country and the onset of Ramzaan.
The petition was filed by an advocate Mohammad Nizam Pasha. The Supreme Court on May 2, 2019 had asked the ECI to consider the representation made by the petitioner and pass appropriate orders. The ECI, in response, after examining the request of the petitioner found it not feasible to advance the polling hours from 7 am to 5 am due to various practical difficulties involved in the entire exercise.
Aggrieved with the decision of the ECI, the petitioner had approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the ECI.
