Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 14: Finally, the newly selected seven District and Sessions Judges have been appointed with the Law Department issuing orders this afternoon after receiving nod from the Raj Bhawan. The orders regarding posting of these Judges would be issued by the High Court shortly.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that clearance for appointment of seven newly selected District and Sessions Judges was received from Raj Bhawan yesterday following which the file was placed before the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who marked the same to the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Mir Saifullah, for issuance of the appointment orders.
Today, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Secretary, G H Tantray issued orders mentioning that seven newly selected District and Sessions Judges have been appointed in consultation with the High Court, sources said, adding the appointment order was immediately sent to the High Court for the information of Chief Justice, M M Kumar and issuance of the posting orders, which are likely shortly.
The newly appointed District and Sessions Judges are Haq Nawaz Zargar, Tahir Khurshid Raina, Shazia Tabasum, Tasleem Arief, Sonia Gupta, Rajinder Sapru and Naseer Ahmed Dar. The appointment of seven new District and Sessions Judges would help the High Court in filling up important posts, which are presently lying vacant.
The process for selection of 13 District and Sessions Judges was set in motion Vide Advertisement Notice 501 dated August 1, 2011. Around 215 candidates appeared in Higher Judiciary (Direct Recruitment) Examination conducted by the State High Court and 15 of them were short listed for interview. Out of 15, only nine candidates were declared successful.
However, later two names had to be dropped from the list of nine candidates as one candidate, who occupied top slot in the selection list, was found having militant-links as per the dossier of the CID, while as another candidate was found given excess marks inadvertently.
Even after deletion of two names the appointment of seven left over selected candidates could not be made as the selection list was challenged both in the State High Court and in the Supreme Court on various grounds by those who could not be selected and by at least 17 in-service Sub-Judges. The in-service Sub-Judges challenged the selection on the ground that direct recruitment may hamper their career prospects.
In the petition before the Supreme Court filed by the lawyers practicing in various courts of the State, a bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai in its last order had mentioned that it would be open to the State and High Court of Jammu and Kashmir to appoint seven candidates selected for the posts of District and Sessions Judge (Direct Quota) on the basis of their selection test but their appointment shall abide by the final result of the writ petition.
The Apex Court has fixed July 16, 2013 for further hearing in the petition.
Even after this order from the Supreme Court, the appointments could not be made as Governor’s office in a written communication sought certain clarification from the State Government on the J&K Higher Judiciary Service Rules. The clarifications sought by the Raj Bhawan were of great significant in view of the fact that selection list had been into the thick of controversy ever since it was made public on August 31, 2012.
Now, after six months of issuance of selection list the appointment of seven District and Sessions Judge has been made.
Follow our WhatsApp channel