Jammu and Kashmir HC asks home ministry to file response to plea seeking Anantnag bypoll

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the Union home ministry to file a response within two weeks to a petition seeking byelection to the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. The seat fell vacant last year following the resignation of Mehbooba Mufti when she took over as chief minister of the state. [caption id=“attachment_4178599” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Image courtesy: jkhighcourt.nic.in[/caption] Justice Tashi Rabstan on Thursday directed the home ministry to file its reply within two weeks to the petition filed by Ghulam Mohammad Wani, one of the contesting candidates. Six candidates were in the fray for the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat when the Election Commission (EC) rescinded the by-poll. The EC had notified to hold the byelection to the Anantnag seat on 12 April this year but had to postpone it by over a month due to widespread violence on the polling day in Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on 9 April. As there was no let-off in the violence, particularly in south Kashmir, the EC cancelled the bypoll for the Anantnag seat. Wani approached the high court earlier this year, seeking directions to the Election Commission for holding the bypoll at the earliest. Wani, who was a candidate of All J&K Kissan Mazdoor Party, has challenged the inaction on part of the authorities to conduct the bypoll. Wani’s petition claimed that the inaction of the respondents have denied the sizable population of their basic right of participation in democracy and denied the petitioner of his right to contest for the House of People. It claimed that respondents have failed to follow the procedure laid by the law on the point, the relevant section of the representation of peoples Act 1951.