The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has directed the administration to ensure that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Mehraj Malik, who is currently detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA), is able to cast his vote in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections for four seats in the Union Territory.
Justice Rajesh Sekhri passed the order on Saturday while hearing Malik’s application seeking permission to participate in the Assembly session scheduled to begin on October 23 in Srinagar and to exercise his voting right in the Rajya Sabha election the next day.
“The government shall ensure that the detainee is allowed to cast his vote,” the court directed, according to an AAP spokesperson.
Mehraj Malik, an AAP MLA, has been lodged in Kathua jail since September 8 under the Public Safety Act. His defence counsel informed the court that postal ballots had already been dispatched to the jail to enable him to vote in accordance with the law.
Malik was represented by senior advocate Rahul Pant, along with advocates S. S. Ahmed, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Appu Singh Slathia, Tariq Mughal, and M. Zulkarnain Chowdhary. They argued that the application required urgent consideration since the election was imminent.
Senior Additional Advocate General Monika Kohli and senior advocate Sunil Sethi appeared for the government. Sethi submitted that the authorities had already sent the postal ballot papers to the concerned authority to ensure Malik’s participation in the voting process. However, the court noted that the government’s reply, filed a day earlier, was not yet reflected on the record.
Officials confirmed that J&K Legislative Assembly Secretary Manoj Pandit, who is also the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha polls, dispatched three postal ballots to Kathua jail for Malik. His identity will be verified through a declaration signed by the jail superintendent before his vote is registered.
As per the election process, two Rajya Sabha seats will be contested separately, while two others will be clubbed together under a common notification, allowing each legislator to cast three votes in total.
The National Conference has fielded four candidates, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated three candidates for the four Upper House seats. Malik’s vote could play a crucial role in what is expected to be a closely contested election.
