The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to take a call on a plea seeking to advance the voting timing to 5 am for the remaining phases of the Lok Sabha election due to heat waves and Ramzan.
The petition was filed by advocates Mohammed Nizamuddin Pasha and Asad Hayat, who mentioned it for urgent hearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also consisting of Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna. The Bench asked the counsel appearing for the Election Commission to take a decision on the issue.
The petitioners said they had given a representation to the Election Commission on Monday in this regard, but the EC has not responded to it.
“The petitioners pray for a direction to the Election Commission to extend the polling hours during the fifth, sixth and seventh phases of the ongoing general election, 2019 on May 6, May 12 and May 19, respectively, by 2-2.5 hours so as to commence at 4:30/5 AM (instead of the notified time of 7am) on account of the unprecedented heat waves prevailing in several parts of the country and the onset of the holy month of Ramzan,” the plea said.