The Election Commission on Monday challenged the order passed by a single bench of the high court relaxing some of the restrictions imposed by the poll panel on the movement of motorbikes.
The commission moved a division bench of the court, resulting in a slight change in the previous order.
The division bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta said there should be a partial change to the previous order passed by Justice Krishna Rao.
The bench issued a fresh order that said: “No motorbike rally or biking in groups shall be allowed during Polling Day minus 2 onwards.”
Last week, the single bench of Justice Rao had mentioned that “Polling Day minus 2 : No motorbike rally shall be allowed.”
On Monday, lawyers stated that the division bench should amend this point and pointed out that not just bike rallies but biking in groups also should not be allowed for two days before the elections.
The division bench headed by Justice Sarkar said on Monday that the remaining orders passed by the single bench would remain unchanged.
On Friday, Justice Krishna Rao revised the Election Commission’s restrictions on bikes, narrowing the ban on pillion riding to 12 hours before polling instead of the earlier 48 hours, with exemptions for medical emergencies, family functions or other essential requirements, such as dropping and picking up schoolchildren.
Bike taxi services like Ola and Uber, delivery partners like Zomato and Swiggy and other similar platforms, and office-goers with a valid ID are all exempt from these restrictions.
According to sources, the restrictions were a precautionary measure to ensure free and fair elections. In 2021, 80 people had died in poll-related violence in Bengal.