As the bypolls to two Assembly seats of J&K remains pending, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh recently issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Central government and the Union Territory (UT) administration on a plea seeking immediate by-elections in the constituencies of Nagrota and Budgam .
Justice Sanjay Dhar passed the order on a plea filed by former minister Harsh Dev Singh, ex MLA of UT. The Court stated that the reply must be filed by September 8. The case will be heard next on the same date.In his plea, Singh alleged that there has been a deliberate delay in announcing by-elections to these vacant seats, which amounts to denying the people of these constituencies their fundamental and statutory right to representation.
He pointed out that the ECI is constitutionally mandated under Section 151A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, to fill such vacancies within six months of occurrence.However, despite the lapse of over ten months, no steps have been taken, and arbitrary reasons like massive snowfall have been cited, the plea argued.
Pertinently, when bypolls for various states and UTs were announced and held few months back, EC did not touch these two seats in its scehdule nor did the Centre give any details for the delay in conducting the elections with the same by poll schedule. Budgam assembly seat fell vacant after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who won two seats in the assembly elections held in September 18-October 1, last year, retained the Ganderbal seat and vacated Budgam while taking oath.
However, in the plea, the petitioner has invoked writ jurisdiction of this Court seeking a direction upon the respondents to announce immediatetime bound bye-elections in UT of Jammu and Kashmir for two vacant seats of Nagrota and Budgam. The petitioner claims that he has been sponsored by his party to participate and contest in Nagrota elections and, therefore,
has locus to file the present petition.
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