The traffic restrictions and massive jams due to the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh have led to adjournments of various cases at the Allahabad High Court since past few weeks..The Court on Monday deferred the hearing of Alt News journalist and fact-checker Mohammad Zubair's plea seeking quashing of a criminal case filed against by supporters of Yati Narsinghanand, the priest of Ghaziabad's Dasna Devi Temple, for allegedly promoting enmity.A Bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Yogendra Kumar Srivastava adjourned the matter, noting that the parties could not reach the Court due to Kumbh Mela traffic in Prayagraj."Today, no adverse order is being passed due to traffic restrictions. All parties were unable to reach the court for the same reason," a counsel appearing in the matter told the Bar and Bench.With this, the Court further extended the interim protection from arrest to Zubair till February 17, the next date of hearing. .Due to the traffic jams, the Bar has requested the judges to not pass any adverse orders over absence of lawyers. "Today Bar has requested for no adverse order owing to traffic restrictions," the bench of Justice SD Singh and Justice Dr Gautam Chowdhary said in an order passed on January 27, while adjourning a criminal appeal..Similar adjournments were ordered by the Court in various other cases. This is despite the High Court apparently providing video-conferencing facility for the lawyers. Webex links for attending court proceedings virtually are available on the High Court website. The NDTV on Monday reported that thousands of devotees heading to the Maha Kumbh are stranded on highways due to massive traffic jams, spanning hundreds of kilometers, on routes leading to Prayagraj.
