Kumbh Mela Traffic Impacts Hearing of Cases in Allahabad High Court

New Delhi: Traffic restrictions and massive jams due to the ongoing Kumbh Mela have resulted in adjournments of various cases at the Allahabad high court since the past few weeks.

A bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava on Monday (February 10) deferred the hearing of Alt News journalist and fact-checker Mohammad Zubair's plea seeking quashing of a criminal case filed against him by supporters of Hindutv figure Yati Narsinghanand for allegedly promoting enmity, reported Bar and Bench.

While adjourning the case, the court noted that the parties could not reach the Court owing to the Kumbh Mela traffic in Prayagraj. The court also extended the interim protection from arrest to Zubair till February 17, which was decided as the next date of hearing.

"Today, no adverse order is being passed due to traffic restrictions. All parties were unable to reach the court for the same reason," said a counsel appearing in the matter.

Several other hearings were also adjourned due to the issues rising from the Kumbh Mela traffic.

The bar has requested the judges to not pass adverse orders over absence of lawyers.

"Today Bar has requested for no adverse order owing to traffic restrictions," the bench of Justices SD Singh Gautam Chowdhary had said in an order passed on January 27, while adjourning a criminal appeal.

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