Srinagar- The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Wednesday exempted Chief Secretary and Chief Election Officer of the Ladakh from personal appearance in connection with the contempt plea filed by National Conference regarding allotment of “plough” symbol to the grand old party of J&K.
A bench of Justice Sindhu Sharma passed the orders on an application filed by Chief Secretary and the CEO, seeking exemption from their personal appearance today. They submitted that the Union Territory of Ladakh has filed an SLP (Special Leave Petition) before the Supreme Court against the judgment and order dated 9 and 14 August respectively by the High Court.
The SLP, they said, was listed before the Supreme Court on August 22 and has now been listed for hearing on August 25. Therefore, they said, till the matter was heard by the top court, the proceedings in the contempt petition be deferred and the duo be exempted from personal appearance. “Since the Supreme Court is already seized of the matter, therefore, respondent Nos. 1 and 2 (CS and CEO) are exempted from personal appearance till further orders from this court,” the court said.
On previous date of the hearing in the contempt plea filed by National Conference, the court had directed the Chief Secretary and the CEO to appear in person if the plough symbol was not allotted to the party by today being the last date for filing nominations.
As per a notification issued by the election department on August 5, the election to 26 seats of the 30-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, is scheduled for September 10 and the counting of votes will take place four days later.
The Ladakh administration had approached Division Bench of the court on August 14 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 for notifying the reserved symbol (Plough) already allotted to it for the polls. The order of the single bench was upheld by the Division Bench on August 14.
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