The plea moved by advocate Sanjiv Kumar has also sought a direction to book them under various charges, including sedition and inciting hatred, of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
New Delhi: A plea moved before the Delhi High Court has sought direction to the Election Commission to ban National Conference’s leaders Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti from participating in the Lok Sabha poll as their “statements are against the Indian constitution”.
All the three leaders are the former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.
The plea moved by advocate Sanjiv Kumar has also sought a direction to book them under various charges, including sedition and inciting hatred, of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
“Issue directions to the respondent number 1 (EC) to ban the NC and the PDP from Lok Sabha election 2019 as respondent number 4 and 6 (the three leaders) are presidents of their respective parties and represent their parties and their ideologies,” it alleged.
The petition filed by him alleged that the statements given by the three leaders were against the Constitution, adding that the court or the ECI should bar or impose conditions on their entry into the general elections.
“Will it not be a mockery of democracy to allow those people and parties to participate in the Lok Sabha election when people/parties openly call for sedition to divide Mother India on the basis of religion (Muslim majority) and two prime ministers (for Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India)…,” it said.
The plea is yet to come up for hearing.
Reacting to this, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Why waste time in court. Wait for BJP to scrap Article 370. It will automatically debar us from fighting elections since Indian constitution won’t be applicable to J & K anymore. Na samjho gay tou mit jaouge aye Hindustan walo. Tumhari dastaan tak bhi na hogi dastaano main (If you won’t understand, you will be finished. Your story will not be in the history)”
Seven-phase Lok Sabha polls are set to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.
With inputs from agencies.