The Kashmir Dialogues
Four vacant seats to be filled through three separate biennial polls starting October 6
Nadeem Nadu
Srinagar, Sep 24 (KNC): The Election Commission of India on Wednesday announced the schedule for long-pending biennial elections to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, more than four years after the seats fell vacant.
In a statement issued by Election Commission of India as per news agency Kashmir News Corner — KNC, the term of office of four members of the Rajya Sabha elected from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir had expired in February 2021.
It says, the seats were held by Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Shamsher Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Nazir Ahmad Laway.
The Commission said the vacancies remained unfilled due to the absence of a legislative assembly in the Union Territory following the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Section 9 of the Act provided that the four sitting members would be deemed elected to represent the UT of Jammu and Kashmir until the end of their terms.
“With the constitution of the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the required electorate now exists to conduct the biennial elections to the Council of States,” the ECI said.
The ECI clarified that the four vacancies will be filled through three separate elections, as they originally fell under three different election cycles. This practice was upheld by the Delhi High Court in 1994 in the case A.K. Walia vs. Union of India, which ruled that elections must remain separate if the seats belong to different categories from inception.
The term of office of the members elected in these polls will remain subject to the outcome of SLP (C) No. 17123/2015 (Election Commission of India vs. Devesh Chandra Thakur & Others), currently pending before the Supreme Court.
The Commission has also directed that only integrated violet sketch pens provided by the Returning Officer be used to mark preferences on the ballot paper. Observers will be appointed to closely monitor the process and ensure free and fair elections. (KNC)
