HC rejects plea of dismissed professor to fight LS polls

Jammu and Kashmir high court has dismissed the petition of Abdul Bari Naik, the assistant professor who was dismissed from service by the union territory government in 2021 under Article 311, to fight as an independent candidate for upcoming parliamentary elections in Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

Bari had filed a petition in the court on April 16, urging the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Anantnag deputy commissioner (returning officer) to accept the candidature of the petitioner and allow him to contest as independent candidate for upcoming Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat 2024.

However the court of justice Sindhu Sharma dismissed his petition as his nomination was not accepted by the election authorities owing to his dismissal from job and also he didn’t present a certificate from ECI under The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 stating that he has not been dismissed from government job for ‘corruption or disloyalty to the state’.

“The petitioner, thus, was aware that he was dismissed from the office and was disqualified for a period of five years of the dismissal till he provides a certificate from Election Commission that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the State. That is precisely why the petitioner made a representation and even appeared before the Election Commission. The petitioner, however, did not reveal the rejection of his application when the matter was taken up for consideration on 18th and 19th of April, 2024,” the judgement, announced on April 19, said. Bari, an assistant professor of Geography at Government Degree College (Women) Udhampur, was dismissed from his job in May 2021 under Article 311 - which gives the government the power to sack employees in the interest of security of the state without an inquiry - after he was arrested under UAPA in March that year. His family had said that he was arrested for his activism against alleged corruption in government.

Bari had submitted in the court that he was “an activist having strong and robust background of having served the people of Jammu & Kashmir for the last so many years and was being actively involved in public life”.

Bari had argued that the requirement of certificate under Section 9 of The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 would come into force only after the scrutiny of his nomination papers, when the respondents can reject the candidature of the candidate.

The counsel for ECI, MI Dar had submitted that the request of the petitioner was not accepted by the Commission in view of the fact that his dismissal from the service was by invoking Article 311(2) of the Constitution of India relating to the interest of the security of the State.

The court said as the EC had rejected the request of the petitioner, the petitioner was not a duly nominated person in terms of the Representation of the Peoples Act. “And his nomination papers even if he had presented the same could not be accepted,” the judgement said.

“In view of the law laid down above, this writ petition is not maintainable and this apart, otherwise also, there is no merit in the same. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the writ petition is dismissed both on the grounds of maintainability as well as on merit,” it said.