EC rejects plea seeking rescheduling of polling timings during Ramzan

New Delhi, May 05: The Election Commission today said that there will be no change in poll timings for Ramzan, turning down a petition for voting to start as early as 4:30 am in the last three phases of the Lok Sabha elections.

"The petitioners pray for a direction to the Election Commission of India 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 7 am) 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 read.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court had asked the Election Commission to decide 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. A petition in this regard was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, took the petition on board and asked the counsel appearing for the Election Commission to take a decision on the issue.

The petition, filed by advocates Mohammed Nizamuddin Pasha and Asad Hayat, said they had given a representation to the Election Commission on Monday in this regard, but the poll panel has not responded to it.