Acting Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice K.S Gupta dismissed the petition filed by several residents of the Gautam Nagar Slum Colony, where the salted snacks were distributed, saying "this is too premature a stage for the High Court to interfere".

"Nobody can undermine what exactly happened that day," the court said, adding "there seems to be no doubt that the probe will not be honest and impartial".

The court observed: ``What happened to a number of citizens on November 25 deserves to be strongly condemned. However, we make no comment on certain political averments made in the petition''.

The bench said: ``What is there to presume that the probe would not be honest, purposeful, meaningful and bonafide? Especially, with the change in the political and administrative scenario, this presumption does not hold good''.

Expressing its sadness over the incident on the polling day, the judges remarked: ``Undoubtedly nobody can undermine that such a heinous thing can take place in the Capital.'' The court also rejected the plea of the petitioner for withdrawing the petition.

The petition, which had named the Union of India, election Commission of India, Delhi government, commissioner of police and CBI among others as parties, alleged that the police was aware of those involved in the incident but "because of the pressure from the authorities there is laxity in the investigation and no arrests have been made so far".

The petitioners' counsel, R.N. Mittal, alleged that the BJP was behind the conspiracy to prevent over 4,000 voters to cast their votes in the constituency in which Congress candidate Kiran Walia was pitted against former Chief minister Sushma Swaraj.

Mittal submitted that even though nine days had gone by, not a single person had been arrested and what was on the day one feared as poisoning due to mixing of dhatura in the snacks has now been converted into fungus. He contended that the eyewitnesses and the residents of the affected area had complained to the police regarding the involvement of certain BJP workers, who were seen distributing the snacks, in the incident but their prayer have remained unheard.

He argued that this and several other factors led to the understanding that the probe into the matter would not be ``fair, honest, meaningful and bonafide''.