Panthers Party moves apex court , seeks early Assembly elections

Jammu, May 11

Harsh Dev Singh, senior leader of the J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP), on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, seeking conduct of Assembly polls early in the UT.

Singh, an advocate, filed the plea on behalf of JKNPP leader Manju Singh, Ramnagar Block Development Council Chairman Des Raj and Udhampur’s District Development Committee member Ashri Devi.

According to Harsh Dev Singh, the matter is likely to be heard by the apex court in a couple of days. “J&K has been deprived of a democratic government for the last four years. Elections are being delayed and denied and continue to be postponed for one reason or the other,” he said. He said he had prayed for the revival of a people’s government in the Union Territory in consonance with the spirit of the Constitution and successive rulings of the top court.

Singh said the court on several occasions had held that Assembly elections must be held within six months in all those states and UTs where Assemblies are pre-maturely dissolved. He said Assembly elections continued to be denied in Jammu and Kashmir on “flimsy” grounds. “Sometimes they are denied on the grounds of security scenario, sometimes on the pretext of unfinished delimitation exercise…,” he said. (With PTI inputs)