Omar welcomes SC verdict on Ladakh polls

Srinagar, Sep 6 (PTI) NC leader Omar Abdullah on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court order on the allotment of ”plough” symbol to it, saying the BJP and Ladakh administration “did everything possible” to deny them their right, but the court saw through it.

“.@JKNC_ got the verdict we wanted & deserved. Our symbol, the plough, has been given to us by the Hon Supreme Court earlier this morning,” Abdullah said in a tweet.

The former J-K chief minister alleged that the “BJP ably assisted by a totally biased Ladakh administration, did everything possible to deny us our right”.

“The court saw through this & penalised them with ?1 lakh costs imposed on the administration. Congratulations to @JkncKargil and a huge thank you to @ShariqJReyaz for the amazing job he did arguing this in front of the HC & SC,” he added.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the August 5 notification of the election department for the Ladakh hill council polls and directed the issuance of fresh notification within seven days for it.

A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also dismissed the plea by the Ladakh administration opposing the allotment of ”plough” symbol to the NC and imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on it.

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court had dismissed the Ladakh administration’s plea against a single bench order allowing NC candidates to contest the upcoming polls for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, on the party symbol.

The administration had approached a division bench of the high court against the single bench order of August 9 which directed the NC to approach the office of the Election Department of the administration of Ladakh to notify the reserved symbol ”plough” already allotted to for in the polls.

According to a notification issued by the election department on August 5, the polls for 26 seats of the 30-member LAHDC, Kargil, are scheduled for September 10 and the counting of votes will take place four days later.