The story so far: The Supreme Court on September 6 reprimanded the Lieutenant Governor’s administration of the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh for procrastinating in reserving the ‘plough’ as a party symbol for those candidates contesting on the National Conference’s (NC) tickets in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) elections. The double-bench of the SC set aside Ladakh’s earlier election polling date of September 10 and directed the UT administration to re-notify election dates. It observed that the NC reserved the right to be “entitled to the exclusive allotment of the ‘plough’ symbol for candidates proposed to be put up by it”. The SC, while dismissing the appeal of the Ladakh administration, put ‘costs of ₹1 lakh on it’ for wasting the court’s time. A fresh notification issued by the Ladakh administration has fixed October 4 as the new polling date.
Why did the SC reprimand them?
The SC came down hard on the L-G administration because of its failure to abide by two orders of the J&K High Court and Ladakh — first issued by a single bench on August 9 and the second by a double-bench on August 14 — allowing the NC to retain ‘plough’ as its party symbol in Ladakh. ‘Plough’ is already a registered party symbol of the NC with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The apex court hinted at a deliberate delay by the administration.
Why was the NC denied its symbol?
The UT of Ladakh listed parties and symbols in July this year through an official notification but didn’t register NC as a party there. Ladakh, which was part of the Kashmir division of the erstwhile State of J&K, was carved out as a separate UT in 2019 after the Parliament adopted the J&K Reorganisation Act. After that, in 2019 itself, the ECI recognised the NC as a party for the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Ladakh administration denied the party symbol on the grounds that the reserved symbol ‘plough’ has to be notified by the ECI itself for Ladakh, and not by the UT of Ladakh. At present, the UT of Ladakh has no State Election Commission but an Election Authority to conduct the hill council polls.
How did the NC defend its symbol?
The NC is the current political party in power in the LAHDC-K. The party won 10 seats in the 30-member LAHDC-K to emerge as the single largest political party in the 2018 hill council elections.
The NC accused the Election Authority of Ladakh of bias in denying them the party symbol, saying that “the same Election Authority granted the Aam Aadmi Party its party symbol for the 2020 LAHDC-Leh polls”. Quoting rules, the NC argued that if a political party, which is recognised as a State party in some State or States, sets up a candidate at an election in a constituency in any other State or UT in which it is not a recognised State party, then such candidate may be allotted the symbol reserved for that party.
What was behind the legal tussle?
The BJP carved out Ladakh as a UT largely on the long pending demands made by the Buddhist population of the region, which is split between the Muslim-majority Kargil district and the Buddhist-majority Leh district. The BJP may not like the return of any regional force to Ladakh that will revive the politics in favour of the restoration of provisions of Article 370 or reunification of J&K with Ladakh.
The Gupkar alliance, steered by NC president Dr. Farooq Abdullah, has repeatedly demanded reunification and restoration of the special constitutional status to erstwhile J&K. In case the NC returns to power at the LAHDC-K in these polls, it will sell the victory as a vote for reunification and special status. NC vice president Omar Abdullah has already termed the L-G administration’s move to deny the symbol as “a biased agenda” to benefit the BJP, which managed to win only one seat in the 2018 polls.
- The Supreme Court on September 6 reprimanded the Lieutenant Governor’s administration of the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh for procrastinating in reserving the ‘plough’ as a party symbol for those candidates contesting on the National Conference’s (NC) tickets in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Kargil (LAHDC-K) elections.
- The SC came down hard on the L-G administration because of its failure to abide by two orders of the J&K High Court and Ladakh — first issued by a single bench on August 9 and the second by a double-bench on August 14 — allowing the NC to retain ‘plough’ as its party symbol in Ladakh. ‘Plough’ is already a registered party symbol of the NC with the Election Commission of India (ECI). The apex court hinted at a deliberate delay by the administration.
- The NC accused the Election Authority of Ladakh of bias in denying them the party symbol, saying that “the same Election Authority granted the Aam Aadmi Party its party symbol for the 2020 LAHDC-Leh polls”.
