Srinagar: The J&K High Court on Wednesday directed the District Judge, Kargil, to decide and dispose of the plea filed by Reyaz Ahmad Khan, seeking transfer of his election petition to some other court, within three months.
Reyaz Ahmad Khan through his counsel, Mian Qayoom, had filed a plea before the High Court seeking transfer of his election petition pending before the District Judge, Kargil, to any other court of competent jurisdiction in UT of Ladakh or Srinagar, with further direction to conclude the proceedings as expeditiously as possible.
The aggrieved petitioner told the court that he had filed an election petition in terms of Section 12(1) of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act, 1997, before the District Judge, Kargil, challenging the final result sheet dated 31 August, 2018, of the Hill Development Council from 10 Chuliskamboo Constituency Kargil.
He told the court that the election petition before District Judge, Kargil, was filed on 5 September, 2018, but the judge had dragged on the proceedings of the case from one date to another without any substantial progress in the proceedings of the case.
It was averred that as per Section 14 of the Ladakh Hill Development Council Act, 1997, the term of a Councilor is only five years, “out of which more than 3 and a half years have already elapsed and as such the election petition is required to be disposed of at the earliest,” the petitioner’s counsel submitted before the high court.
Justice Sanjay Dhar while taking the argument of the counsel into consideration said that the petitioner would feel satisfied if an appropriate direction is issued to District Judge Kargil to expedite the disposal of the election petition within a time frame.
The court thus disposed of the plea with a direction to District Judge, Kargil, to decide and dispose of the election petition expeditiously, preferably within a period of three months from the date a copy of this order is made available to the said court.

NUSRAT SIDIQ