Nomination papers of Sarjan Barkati rejected

Shopian, Aug 28: The nomination papers of jailed separatist activist Sarjan Ahmad Wagay alias Sarjan Barkati were rejected on Wednesday.

An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that the authorised person of the candidate Sarjan Ahmad Wagay alias Sarjan Barkati filed the nomination papers on behalf of the candidate on Tuesday at 2:55 pm, which was the last date of filing of nomination papers, in the office of the Returning Officer (RO), 36-Zainapora.

“On examination of the nomination papers, it was found that it lacked an oath certificate, which is a mandatory requirement under Section 16 of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, duly signed by the Superintendent of Central Jail Srinagar, as the candidate is under detention in Central Jail Srinagar,” the spokesman said. “The oath has to be duly subscribed by the candidate under detention before the Jail Superintendent before the date of scrutiny and the oath certificate duly by the Jail Superintendent can be filed at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers as per the time set by the RO.”

He said that, accordingly, the authorised person of the candidate was handed over the prescribed checklist and acknowledgement form duly signed by RO to produce an oath certificate and other deficient documents, latest by 11 am on Wednesday.

“The candidate failed to produce the required documents by the specified time. The authorised person of the candidate submitted an invalid and incomplete oath certificate at 1:48 pm on WhatsApp, which is not the prescribed mode of submission of the oath certificate. Further, even the oath certificate submitted was incomplete and not accompanied by the certificate from Superintendent of Jail stating that the oath had been made and subscribed before him within the permissible time,” the official spokesman said.

He said that in view of the mandatory requirement of oath under Section 16 of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the RO was constrained to reject the nomination papers at the time of scrutiny.