Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Oct 7: Laying at rest speculations, the State Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah has finally put its seat on pre-mature retirement of three District and Session Judges after the High Court had declared them as ‘dead-wood’ officially some time back.
Reliable sources confirmed to EXCELSIOR that after thorough deliberations, the Cabinet decided to give its formal approval for the decision, which had been approved by the Administrative Committee of the High Court headed by Chief Justice M M Kumar.
“The order for pre-mature retirement of three District and Sessions Judges, which was a historic decision in Judiciary, was issued on June 2. However, the State Cabinet took nearly four months to put its seal on the order”, sources said adding, “even during the Cabinet meeting, several Ministers affiliated with different political parties aired their political compulsions against the decision”.
Legal experts, however opined, “the decision had been taken by the Full Court in its meeting held on June 2, presided over by Chief Justice and such recommendations are binding on the State Government. Though, the Government sat over the issue for several months, it had to finally give its consent and now the matter has been referred to Governor, N N Vohra”.
Official sources acknowledged that the file pertaining to the removal of District and Sessions Judges had reached Raj Bhawan, adding, “the Governor is likely to give nod for issuance of the final order soon”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the decision of the Administrative Committee was placed before the Full Court, which met on June 2, 2013, and the Full Court headed by Chief Justice M M Kumar approved the decision for pre-mature retirement of three District and Sessions Judges unanimously.
These District Judges were Muzaffar Iqbal Qureshi, Additional District Judge, TADA/ POTA Srinagar, who was also holding the charge of Additional District Judge, Bank Cases, Brij Mohan Gupta, Principal District and Sessions Judge Bhaderwah and Shakti Kumar Gupta, Principal District and Sessions Judge Kargil.
An Administrative Committee of the High Court headed by Chief Justice M M Kumar while assessing the performance of the Judicial Officers found these three judges as ‘dead-wood’ for the judiciary.
Sources said, “with this decision, it has been conveyed that there is no room for incorrigible and corrupt persons in the judiciary. This is for the first time in the history of J&K that such a decision has been taken to keep the dead-wood out of the judiciary and these Judges would now be prematurely retired by the High Court”.
“The orders in this regard were issued following principle of zero tolerance for indiscipline, lack of integrity and inefficiency”, sources said, adding “the decision was taken after assessing their utility”.
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