The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea by the National Conference challenging the denial of the ‘plough’ symbol to its candidates for the upcoming Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) polls on September 10.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah concluded the arguments presented by the lawyers representing the union territory administration and the political parties. The court announced that the judgment will be delivered on September 6.
The Additional Solicitor General, K M Natraj, representing the UT administration and the poll panel, initially stated that the election symbol order of 1968 is applicable to assembly and parliamentary polls but not to local body elections. He also mentioned that the reserved election symbols were allocated to recognized national political parties. Furthermore, none of the 89 candidates claiming to belong to the National Conference sought the allocation of the ‘plough’ party symbol for the upcoming local body polls.
The law officer pointed out that the last date for filing nominations for the hill council polls was August 23, and after the scrutiny of nomination papers a day later, candidates could withdraw from the contest by August 26. With the elections scheduled for September 10, he argued that the poll process could not be halted, emphasizing that the poll panel was not obliged to grant reserved symbols to the candidates.
The National Conference’s counsel opposed these arguments, asserting that the party held power in the Ladakh hill council, and its candidates should not be denied the benefit of a reserved poll symbol for the local body elections. The lawyer argued that the 1968 election symbol order was applied unfairly to prevent the recognized party from using its established election symbol, and a level playing field was denied to the National Conference. Furthermore, the lawyer emphasized that local body elections were also fought along party lines.
Previously, the bench had criticized the UT administration for not granting the ‘plough’ poll symbol to the party for the hill council elections despite the high court’s order in this regard. On August 25, the bench observed, “It is unfair… We will set aside the election schedule if need arises.” This was during the hearing of the appeal by the Union Territory of Ladakh against the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court’s order.
Before that, the Supreme Court had declined to stay the high court order regarding the allocation of the ‘plough’ poll symbol for the party in the hill council elections. The high court had dismissed the Ladakh administration’s plea against a single bench order that allowed NC candidates to contest the upcoming LAHDC, Kargil, polls with the party symbol. 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, with vote counting taking place four days later.