* Strength to go up to 13 against sanctioned posts of 14
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 3: In a significant development, which will help in bringing down huge pendency of cases in the State High Court, the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir has cleared all the six names recommended by the State Government for filling up of six vacant posts in Jammu and Kashmir High Court. Now, the names will be forwarded to the Union Law Ministry, which after giving its clearance will forward the same to the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, for issuance of warrant of appointment. With the filling up of six vacant posts the strength of Judges in State High Court will increase from existing 7 to 13 against the total sanctioned strength of 14.
The exercise to fill up the vacant posts of Judges was set in motion in the month of June this year when the Collegium of the State High Court headed by the then Chief Justice had recommended the names of two Judges and five Advocates for the vacant posts.
However, retired High Court Judge Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain’s younger brother and a prominent law publisher Advocate Hakeem Ishtiyaz Hussain died a day after his name was cleared and recommended by the Collegium of State High Court.
Thereafter, the six names were forwarded to the Chief Minister and Law Department and then to the Governor, who subsequently recommended the names to Supreme Court Collegium for its decision.
“The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir in its meeting held earlier this week cleared all the six names for filling up of vacant posts in Jammu and Kashmir High Court”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
The names, which have been cleared for appointment as Judges of the State High Court are Bansi Lal Bhat, Special Judge CBI Court, Jammu, Janak Raj Kotwal, Member J&K Special Tribunal, Jammu (both from Judges quota), Senior Additional Advocate General, Ali Mohammad Magray, Senior High Court lawyers namely Azhar-ul-Amin, Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Tashi Rabstan from Leh (from Bar quota).
Tashi Rabstan is the Jammu-based lawyer from Ladakh and with his appointment the Ladakh region would get representation in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court for the first time in the judicial history of the State. Dheeraj Singh Thakur is Jammu-based lawyer and is brother of Supreme Court Judge, Tirath Singh Thakur. Similarly, Advocate Azhar-ul-Amin is the senior member of Srinagar Bar Association.
As per the laid down procedure, the Supreme Court will now forward the names of these six persons to the Union Law Ministry, which after giving its clearance will forward these names to the President of India for issuance of warrant of appointment. “The appointment of Judge of any High Court in the country is made by the President, who is the constitutional head, in consultation with three authorities—-the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State and the Chief Justice of State High Court”, sources said.
It would be after a long time that J&K High Court would be having 13 Judges against the sanctioned strength of 14 including the Chief Justice. The sanctioned strength includes 9 Permanent Judges and five Additional Judges. Presently, there are seven Judges of the State High Court including Chief Justice.
These are Chief Justice M M Kumar, Justice Virender Singh, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir, Justice Jai Pal Singh, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Hasnain Massodi.
The filling up of six vacant posts of High Court Judges would go a long way in bringing down pendency of cases, sources said, adding presently thousands of cases are pending in Jammu and Srinagar wings of the High Court because of shortage of Judges.
As far as pendency of cases in other courts of the State, the Chief Justice of State High Court, Justice M M Kumar has already formulated an Action Plan and fixed targets for disposal of cases. This was for the first time in the history of J&K judiciary that such an initiative has been taken and this remarkable step would be of immense help in ensuring timely justice.
The Chief Justice is not only taking stock of the situation vis-à-vis clearance of pending cases as per the Action Plan but also evaluating response from the Judicial Officers.
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