Jailed cleric Sarjan Barkati ‘failed to produce oath certificate’, says EC after rejecting his nomination papers

The nomination papers of Dr Bari Naik, a terminated college assistant professor, have also been rejected for the second time this year: his nomination was rejected during the Lok Sabha polls too.

Barkati was considered the central figure in the 2016 protest rallies in south Kashmir in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. The protests lasted for more than three months.

He was arrested last year in connection with alleged irregularities in fund-raising. His wife too was arrested in the same case months later.

Of the 280 candidates who filed the nomination papers for 24 assembly seats going to polls in the first phase on September 18, 36 have been rejected. Of this, 23 were for the 16 seats in the Valley, 13 for Jammu’s eight seats.

Officials at the Election Commission said later Wednesday evening that Barkati’s nomination was rejected because they failed to produce the oath certificate. This came after leaders such as former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti demanded that the reasons for the rejection be made public.

“On examination of nomination papers, it was found it lacked an oath Certificate, which is a mandatory requirement under Section 16 of the J&K Reorganization Act 2019) duly signed by the Superintendent of Central Jail Srinagar, as the candidate is under detention in Central Jail Srinagar. 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 Returning officer,” the official statement said.

According to the statement, Barkati was asked to produce the oath certificate “and other deficient documents” by 11 am Wednesday.

“The candidate failed to produce the required documents by the specified time. The authorized person of the candidate submitted an invalid and incomplete Oath Certificate at 1:48 P.M., on WhatsApp, which is not the prescribed mode of submission of (the) oath certificate,” the statement said.

However, Barkati’s supporters blamed rival National Conference candidate Showkat Ahmad Ganai for “influencing” the decision and said they would appeal the decision in court.

In her post on X, Mufti had said: “Sorry to hear about the rejection of (the) assembly nomination form of Sarjan Barkati from Zainpora. (The) Election Commissioner must make the reasons public for this decision. Democracy is a battle of ideas and everyone should be given a chance to participate in it.”

Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference president and former Handwara MLA Sajad Lone has also condemned the move.

“The rejection of the election form of Sarjan Barkati is highly condemnable. This family has gone through a terrible time. Both Barkati Sahib and his wife are behind the bars,” Lone said on X. “I request the election commission to investigate the conditions and the context in which the form was rejected. Election cannot be an exclusive luxury. That defeats the whole purpose of elections”.

Zainapora goes to polls in the first phase of the assembly election on September 18.