The National Conference (NC) on August 22 received a major relief from the Supreme Court which refused to stay the Jammu and Kashmir High Court orders on allotment of the party symbol, plough, for the coming Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil elections.
“The Ladakh administration tried to get the High Court order stayed. It tried to get the contempt proceedings stayed, this was also refused by the Supreme Court. If the order to allot us our symbol is not issued by this evening the contempt order of the High Court will prevail,” NC leader Tanvir Sadiq told The Hindu.
The NC approached the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court after the election authority of Ladakh refused to grant the party its symbol for the polls scheduled for September 10. The Ladakh administration argued that the election authority of the Union Territory was not a competent body to grant symbols to parties. However, the NC pleaded before the High Court that the same authority “granted the Aam Aadmi Party its symbol for the 2010 polls in Leh”.
“The Chief Secretary of Ladakh and Chief Election Officer will have to appear in person in the High Court tomorrow, if they fail to grant the symbol. We hope that the Ladakh administration will follow the directions of the court and issue the order for allotment of our symbol. We fail to see why the administration has made an ego issue out of this symbol allotment,” Mr. Sadiq said.
300-page appeal
The Union Territory administration had filed a 300-page appeal against the single judge Bench decision, where the NC was granted the right to retain its symbol for the coming LAHDC Kargil elections.
The NC claimed that the Union Territory administration by not notifying the symbol “intended to keep the party away from participating in the election to the fifth LAHDC-K polls”.
Ladakh was carved out as a Union Territory from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. All the regional parties had to register before the Election Commission of India afresh to contest polls in the region.
