Residential, Commercial Tenancy Act termed as illegal
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 14: The work in the High Court as well as Sub-ordinate Courts remained affected today as the lawyers abstained from the work in protest against the Jammu and Kashmir Residential and Commercial Tenancy Act, 2012, by virtue of which Houses and Shops Rent Control Act has been repealed.
There was deserted look in all the courts as litigants didn’t turn up keeping in view the strike call given by the Bar Association Jammu yesterday evening.
Later, in an executive committee meeting of the Bar Association Jammu held under the chairmanship of its president Senior Advocate B S Salathia, it was decided to suspend work in all the courts across the Jammu region on July 20 and 21 in protest against the Residential and Commercial Tenancy Act, 2012.
The executive committee passed a resolution against the Residential and Commercial Tenancy Act. “The Act operates to divest the Civil Courts of their powers to judiciously adjudicate the disputes arising between landlords and tenants and vest them with the Assistant Commissioners and Tehsildar across the State”, Mr Slathia said.
Terming the Act as illegal and unconstitutional, the members said that settling intricate disputes between landlords and tenants involves interpretation of different laws and acts and these officers, lacking the legal expertise, would only aggravate the already suffering litigant public.
The Executive Committee framed a panel comprising R K Kotwal, Pawan Manni, Sandeep Singh, Ajay Sharma and Rajesh Thappa to examine the legality, constitutionality and proprietary of the Act supra on the Judicial side and render their opinion, by informing the Bar Association Jammu for taking appropriate legal action in the matter.
It was also decided in the meeting to appeal all the Bar Associations across the State and members belonging to legal fraternity to abstain from work in the Courts on July 20 and 21.
The participants said that move of the State Government in divesting powers of Presiding Officers of Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal (MACT), Traffic Magistrate from adjudicating of the disputes relating to claim/challans and vesting the same to the bureaucrats has been viewed seriously and will be fought tooth and nail.
The meeting was attended by M U Salaria, vice-president, Parimoksh Seth, joint secretary, Sandeepa Sambyal, treasurer, Rohan Nanda, president YLA, S D S Saini, former president, J R Arora, C M Sharma, Pawan Manni, Baldev Singh, B S Sudan, Ravinder Sharma, J P Gandhi, Ajay Sharma, Asha Koul, Rajinder Singh Jamwal, Rajesh Thappa, P S Parmar, H C Jalmeria, Sandeep Singh, R K Kotwal, R K Dullo, Minu Koul, Jaspinder Singh, Anwar Chaudhary and M P Kapoor.
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