*27 posts lying vacant in Subordinate Judiciary
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 6: Notwith-standing the fact that pendency of cases is still a matter of serious concern, the working strength of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has reduced to almost 50% of the sanctioned strength following the recent retirement of a Judge. The situation will become more grave as one more Judge is scheduled to attain age of retirement in the month of April this year and there is no immediate end in sight to the issue of preparation of fresh Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which governs appointment of Judges.
Highly placed sources in the judiciary told EXCELSIOR, earlier the sanctioned strength of the J&K High Court was 14 but in the year 2014, the same was increased to 17 Judges including Chief Justice. The sanctioned strength was increased keeping in view sharp rise in the work load during the past some years and with the aim of ensuring expeditious disposal of the cases for providing timely justice to the people.
However, at present the working strength of the J&K High Court is almost 50% of the sanctioned strength. Earlier, there were 10 Judges including Chief Justice but following the recent retirement of Justice Hasnain Masoodi, the working strength has reduced to nine (including Chief Justice), which is almost 50% of the sanctioned strength of 17 Judges, sources said.
At present, there are only eight Judges—Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, Justice Ali Mohd Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Bansi Lal Bhat, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal and Justice Bawa Singh Walia besides Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar.
The situation will worsen further within next few months as one more Judge of the High Court Justice Bansi Lal Bhat is scheduled to attain superannuation on April 18, 2016 following which the working strength will get further reduced to eight including Chief Justice, sources said while disclosing that J&K High Court never had full strength because of inordinate delay in appointment of new Judges.
In response to a question, sources said that State High Court will have to work with almost 50% strength of the Judges for unspecified period because no fresh appointment can be made till preparation of new Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which governs the field.
It is pertinent to mention here that last month the Supreme Court asked the Centre to prepare a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) by taking into account views of the State and then hold consultation with the Chief Justice of India to enable transparency.
A five-judge Constitution Bench has asked the Centre to take into consideration suggestions on issues of eligibility, transparency, setting up of Secretariat for appointment of Judges, redressal of complaints and other issues in the MoP on appointment of Judges.
After soliciting views of the States, the Centre will finalize Memorandum of Procedure on appointment of Judges in the higher judiciary in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, who will take decision in consultation with complete unanimity of the collegiums consisting of four Senior Judges.
“No doubt, the present Chief Justice of State High Court is leaving no stone unturned to ensure expeditious disposal of the pending cases, how the same can gain momentum in the absence of the required number of Judges remains a million dollar question”, sources said.
What to talk of High Court, there are vacancies in the Subordinate Judiciary of the State also, sources said while disclosing that at present there are 9 vacancies in High Judicial Service Cadre, 17 in Civil Judge (Junior Division) Cadre and one in Civil Judge (Senior Division) Cadre.
As far as vacancies of District Judges are concerned, sources said, “the process for filing up of eight of the vacancies in the Cadre of District Judge has already been initiated but the matter is presently pending for disposal by the Committee of the High Court”.
Four of these vacancies are required to be filled up by direct recruitment; three have to be filled up through merit position from Sub Judges/Civil Judges (Senior Division) on the basis of Limited Competitive Examination of Civil Judges (Senior Division) having not less than five years qualifying service and one vacancy has to be filled up by promotion on the basis of merit-cum-seniority from amongst the Sub-Judges/Civil Judges. In this connection vide Notification Nos.293 and 294 dated July 23, 2015, advertisements for filling of four posts of District Judge (Direct Quota) and three posts of District Judges (jump up promotion) respectively were issued.
“The matter is presently seized of by the Committee of High Court”, sources said, adding “the matter regarding filling up of one post of District Judge on the basis of merit-cum-seniority from amongst the Sub Judges/Civil Judges has also been taken up by the Committee”.
About 17 clear vacancies in the cadre of Civil Judge (Junior Division), sources said that 12 posts were referred to the Government on November 25, 2015 and the J&K Public Service Commission has already initiated the process for filling up these posts as per the J&K Civil Service (Judicial) Rules, 1967.
For filling up of the remaining six clear vacancies and five anticipated vacancies calculated up to March 2016, a communication has already been sent to the Government by the Registry of the High Court and now the ball is in the court of State Government, sources said while disclosing that High Court has furnished all sorts of information sought by the Government in this regard.
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