Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Oct 28: Notwith-standing the ‘clearance’ by State Government to all the candidates recommended for the post of High Court Judges, Raj Bhavan has forwarded all the relevant material including complaints and representations which the latter had received to the Union Law Ministry.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR, “last week the Raj Bhavan got reply from the State Government stating that they fully endorsed the names recommended for appointment as High Court Judges and had fully verified the antecedents”, adding, “the communication claimed that all the candidates are deserving candidates and have the required judicial experience”.
However, official sources said, “not convinced with the approval of the State Government, the Governor has forwarded all the representations and complaints received from several quarters against the panel along with the communications received from State Government to the Union Law Ministry.
“The issue had also figured prominently during the meeting of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti with the Governor at Raj Bhavan in the summer capital on October 16. Even as the Chief Minister favoured the panel forwarded by the High Court authorities, the Governor has expressed his reservations against some of the names in the panel”, sources asserted.
Earlier, during the first week of this month, Governor N N Vohra had sought detailed clarifications on certain important issues pertaining to the panel recommended by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Collegium for appointment as Judges.
Raj Bhavan had sent a communication to the Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed seeking information on antecedents of some of the persons whose names have been recommended by the Collegium.
As per Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), the Governor had also sought a detailed reply from the State Government about the credentials of the persons included in the panel.
“The Governor had sought details vis-à-vis clearance from intelligence agencies as there were adverse reports against some of the recommended persons. Moreover, the Raj Bhavan has received several representations pertaining to the credibility issues of some of the persons recommended by the Collegium”, sources said.
As already reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR, the Collegium had recommended four Advocates two each from Jammu and Kashmir regions respectively while one senior Judicial Officer has also been included in the panel. These included Nazir Ahmad Beigh, S A Makroo, Wasim Nargal, Sindhu Sharma and Rashid Ali Dar.
Rashid Ali Dar is presently posted as Principal District and Sessions Judge Srinagar. Advocate Sindhu Sharma is presently Assistant Solicitor General of India in J&K High Court, Jammu Wing.
Advocate Wasim Sadiq Nargal is presently Senior Additional Advocate General and Advocate S A Makroo had earlier served as Assistant Solicitor General of India in J&K High Court, Srinagar Wing.
Interestingly, the name of Nazir Ahmad Beigh has been recommended for the second time by the High Court Collegium. Earlier, in January, 2014 also the HC Collegium headed by the then Chief Justice, M M Kumar had initiated the process for appointment of four new High Court Judges and one of the contenders was Nazir Ahmad Beigh. However, he couldn’t make it to the final selection list.
The sanctioned strength of the J&K High Court is 17 Judges including Chief Justice, but presently there are only 11 Judges. These included Justice R Sudhakar, Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Justice Alok Aradhe, Justice Ali Mohd Magrey, Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, Justice Tashi Rabstan, Justice Janak Raj Kotwal, Justice Sanjeev Kumar Shukla, Justice M K Hanjura and Justice Sanjay Kumar Gupta besides Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed.
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