Asif Iqbal Naik
Jammu, October 14:
The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court at Jammu on Monday directed the Government of J&K to file its response by or before October 18, 2025, in an application filed by detenu Mehraj Malik, seeking permission to participate in the upcoming Assembly session and to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha election scheduled for October 24, 2025.
The matter was listed before Justice Sanjay Dhar, who also granted time to the government to file its reply in the main habeas corpus petition by or before November 7, 2025, with a direction to keep the relevant record available on that date for consideration of the case.
When the matter, along with connected applications, came up for hearing, Senior Advocate Rahul Pant, assisted by Advocates S.S. Ahmed, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Appu Singh Slathia, Tariq Mughal, M. Zulkarnain Chowdhary, and Joginder Singh Thakur, submitted that the application was of an urgent nature. They argued that the detenu should be permitted to participate in the forthcoming Assembly session of J&K and exercise his right to vote in the Rajya Sabha election, emphasizing that the government has yet to file replies in the main petition.
On behalf of the Government of J&K, Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi and Senior AAG Monika Kohli appeared and sought additional time to file replies in both the application and the main petition.
After hearing both sides, the Hon’ble Court acceded to the government’s request for time and passed directions accordingly.
