Lucknow, March 20 (IANS): The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has issued a fresh notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress on a plea related to ban on caste-based rallies.

The court has listed the matter for next hearing on April 10.

Moreover, the court has granted a last chance to the counsel for the Union of India to file reply, if any, as the plea has been pending since 2013 and no reply has been filed by the Centre till now.

The order was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Jaspreet Singh, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a local lawyer Moti Lal Yadav in 2013.

The petitioner sought directives from the court to the Election Commission (EC) to derecognise political parties that hold caste-based rallies.

The petitioner said such rallies should be banned especially at the time of election; the counsel requested to the court.

The petitioner had included political parties such as the BJP, the SP, the BSP, and the Congress, as well as both the state and Central governments along with EC as respondents in the PIL petition.

The court was informed that the counter affidavits (replies to the plea) had already been filed by the EC and the state government in the matter.