Indian Express reports considering COVID-19 and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 in the state, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court relaxed its previous directions and permitted state government to delay elections to 22 district central cooperative banks, sugar factories and 8,194 village-level agricultural credit co-operative societies in Maharashtra.
Earlier, the court had rejected the state government’s decision to postpone elections on the ground that officials would be busy with the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Shetkari Karjamukti Yojna, 2019, the farm loan waiver scheme, and dealing with natural calamities.
The HC had earlier stopped the govt. from postponing elections while hearing a batch of petitions filed by cooperative societies and other individuals accusing the government of pursuing dubious intentions.