SC Allots Plough Symbol To JKNC Ahead Of Polls, Omar Abdullah Welcomes Court's Verdict

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the notification issued by the Union Territory of Ladakh for the election in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) and allotted the 'plough' symbol to the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC). Welcoming the Supreme Court's decision, JKNC Vice President Omar Abdullah said, "We have got the verdict we wanted and deserved." Hitting out at the 'biased' UT administration, Abdullah said, the Bharatiya Janta Party, ably assisted by a totally biased Ladakh administration, did everything possible to deny us our rights.

"Our symbol, the plough, was given to us by the Hon. Supreme Court earlier this morning. The BJP, ably assisted by a totally biased Ladakh administration, did everything possible to deny us our rights. The court saw through this and penalized them with ₹1 lakh in costs imposed on the administration. Congratulations to @JkncKargil! And a huge thank you to @ShariqJReyaz for the amazing job he did arguing this in front of the HC and SC," Omar Abdullah wrote on X.

On Friday, the Supreme Court reserved orders on a petition filed by the Ladakh administration seeking to restrain the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference Party (JKNC) from fighting the local body elections in Kargil on its registered ‘plough’ symbol. The court announced that an order would be passed on Wednesday.

Elections will be held in the Kargil region on September 10. The Court, in its order, asked the election authorities to allot the plough symbol to the JKNC. The decision was announced by a bench of Justices, including Vikaram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullan. 

The court directed a fresh notification to be issued to LAHDC within 7 days. Also, a fine of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on the UT administration. The Court said that only due to this reason, the entire election process issued by the Ladakh authority has been set aside.