Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 12: Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Abdul Haq today reviewed the status of various court cases pertaining to the Department of Education and Services Selection Board (SSB) at a meeting held here.
Commissioner/Secretary School Education, Shalin Kabra, Secretary Law, Abdul Majeed Bhat, Director Information, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Joint Director Planning, senior officers of Law and Education Departments and Law Officers attended the meeting.
While taking detailed appraisal of pendency of cases, the Minister called upon the officers that instead of getting into litigations the efforts should be made to resolve the cases before the same reach the court.
The Minister directed for filing time-bound replies and fixing responsibilities of concerned officers on case to case basis to avoid delays and achieving the desired results. He directed for putting serious and honest efforts to attend to the grievances of complainants expeditiously on merit to ensure minimum possible litigations.
The Minister said that onus also lies on Law Officers who need to guide the Government as well as the concerned department about the prospect of each case. He added the cases that have poor future should be dropped immediately, as it will not only save the valuable time, but enable ample time to focus on other important issues for ensuring efficiency in the functioning.
Haq issued instructions that in all cases where appeal has to be filed by the department the concerned officers shall ensure that appeal is filed within a period of one week. He asked for fixing responsibility of officers and directed that heads of department shall personally monitor the progress in court cases regularly and view should be taken on pendency of cases.
Calling upon the Law Officers to adopt proactive approach in handling the court cases strictly as per the merit, the Minister stressed the need for speedy adjudication of cases pertaining to the service matters including transfers, postings, appointments, ReT and contempt cases.
The Minister said that progress of Law Officers dealing with the cases in various courts is being regularly monitored by the Law Department and appropriate action will be initiated against the non-performing incumbents.
Shaleen Kabra presented a resume of court cases and discussed progress of various cases as well as action taken by the Education Department against officers in many cases. He informed that 710 cases are pending in courts which include 38 matters related to selection of teachers, 26 transfer and postings, 32 pertained to promotion and confirmation, 11 cases of SRO-43 and 65 contempt cases apart from 155 appeals which the department is actively pursuing before the courts
Secretary, Law Department informed that the performance of Law Officers will be monitored and suitable action will be recommended accordingly.